South Korea's E-Mart hits 3-week low after Q2; Nomura downgrades

E-Mart

10/08/2018 06:16

** Shares of E-Mart Inc  139480.KS , South Korea's largest
discount chain operator, fall 4 pct to 217,000 won, its lowest
since July 17, after the retailer posts weaker-than-expected
second-quarter earnings
    ** E-Mart's April-June revenue rises 8.5 pct to around 3.99
trillion won ($3.54 billion), while its operating profit is
around 53.3 billion won, down 18 pct
    ** Gross sales of its hypermarket business falls 2.1 pct
during the quarter and is down 0.9 pct for H1     
    ** Nomura downgrades E-Mart to "neutral" from "buy" and cuts
target price to 240,000 won from 260,000 won amid the delay in
its earnings recovery  
    ** Daiwa says the earnings is weaker-than-expected and
anticipates sluggish sales in the offline channel to persist in
the short term  
    ** As of the previous close, the stock had fallen 16.61
percent so far this year
    ** E-mart, a unit of retail conglomerate Shinsegae Group,
has underperformed the Korea SE Wholesale & Retail Service Index
sector  .KS45  by 5.6 percentage points in the past one month
    ** As of 0423 GMT, about 102,220 shares of the Seoul-based
company have been traded, compared with their 30-day moving
average of 90,040 shares a day 
    ** Among the 29 analysts that cover E-Mart, the current
average rating on the shares is "buy"; the breakdown of
recommendations is  28 "strong buy" or "buy", and one "hold".
The mean price target is 326,888.89 won
    ** The main stock index KOSPI  .KS11  falls 0.8 pct
    ($1 = 1,127.0000 won)

 (Reuters Messaging: donny.kwok.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)