Kospi Closes at 7,208.95 After Wild Swings; Kosdaq Slides 2.61%

Foreign Investors Extend Selling Streak to 10 Sessions

Won Ends at 1,506.8 Per Dollar

South Korea’s Kospi closed lower on May 20 after a highly volatile session, with foreign investors remaining net sellers for a 10th straight trading day.

The Kospi fell 62.71 points, or 0.86%, to 7,208.95. The benchmark opened 0.73% higher, turned negative within three minutes, and at one point dropped as much as 3% to the 7,000 level before recovering much of its losses in afternoon trading.

Foreign investors drove the decline, unloading 2.8978 trillion won ($2.09 billion) worth of shares on the benchmark Kospi market. Retail investors bought 1.3342 trillion won ($962 million), while institutions purchased 1.3698 trillion won ($987 million).

Among large-cap Kospi stocks, Doosan Enerbility fell 4.43%, LG Energy Solution lost 3.88%, Hanwha Aerospace dropped 2.88%, Hyundai Motor slid 1.99% and Samsung Biologics slipped 0.67%. Samsung Electro-Mechanics jumped 7.5%, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries climbed 6.35%, SK Square rose 0.88% and Samsung Electronics added 0.18%.

The Kosdaq closed down 28.29 points, or 2.61%, at 1,056.07. On the Kosdaq market, retail investors and institutions sold 66.1 billion won ($47.7 million) and 121.2 billion won ($87.5 million), respectively, while foreign investors bought 199.5 billion won ($144.0 million).

Among the Kosdaq’s largest stocks, ABL Bio fell 5.09%, Kolon TissueGene lost 5.07%, Samchundang Pharm dropped 5.06%, Rainbow Robotics slid 4.2%, HLB declined 3.84%, EcoPro BM fell 3.13%, EcoPro lost 2.38%, Alteogen shed 1.91% and EO Technics edged down 0.54%. Fadu rose 3.99%, Jusung Engineering gained 0.9% and LEENO Industrial added 0.62%.

In Seoul’s foreign-exchange market, the won closed the daytime session at 1,506.8 per dollar, down 1.0 won from the previous session.

Ko Jung-sam, Hankyung.com reporter jsk@hankyung.com