Kospi falls 1.46% before Samsung, SK hynix earnings

Shares ended lower Monday, tracking losses on Wall Street, as investors remained cautious ahead of third quarter earnings reports from major chipmakers.

The won rose against the dollar.

After opening 0.92 percent lower, the Kospi extended its losses to close down 80.83 points, or 1.46 percent, at 5,469.47.

Trade volume was light at 190.46 million shares worth 12.01 trillion won ($9.08 billion), with decliners far outnumbering advancers 790 to 101.

On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.23 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite declined 0.21 percent.

Investors are awaiting earnings reports from SK hynix on Wednesday and Samsung Electronics on Thursday for clues about the outlook for AI chip demand and memory prices.

Foreigners sold a net 695.5 billion won worth of stocks, while institutions and individuals bought a net 611 billion won and 47 billion won, respectively.

In Seoul, most large-cap stocks declined.

Samsung Electronics fell 1.16 percent to 213,000 won, while its chipmaking rival SK hynix declined 0.16 percent to 1.28 million won.

Carmaker Hyundai Motor dropped 2.54 percent to 288,000 won and defense company Hanwha Aerospace plunged 4.04 percent to 760,000 won.

Among gainers, budget carrier Jeju Air rose 0.96 percent to 5,250 won and LG Display climbed 2.38 percent to 7,320 won.

The local currency rose 1.5 won from the previous session to trade at 1,323.1 against the greenback at 3:30 p.m.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed higher. The yield on three-year Treasurys lost 1.4 basis points to 3.789, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds declined 1.6 basis points to 3.932.

Yonhap