Seoul: Shares post weekly loss as foreigners lead profit taking

[SEOUL] South Korean shares fell for a fourth consecutive session on Friday, ending the week lower on heavy profit taking by foreign investors as Wall Street volatility from GameStop losses weighed on sentiment.

The benchmark Kospi fell 92.84 points, or 3.03 per cent, to 2,976.21.

Foreigners were net sellers of 1,432.8 billion won (S$1.7 billion) worth of shares on the main board. In January, foreign net selling of Kospi shares was 5.23 trillion won, the biggest since March 2020.

Shares of Samsung Biologics dropped 5.37 per cent, Hyundai Motor fell 3.98 per cent. "It was a foreign-driven profit taking, as some are getting cold-feet having seen how bad market volatilities can get in the US," said Lee Kyung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities. Asian retail investors, emboldened by the meteoric rise of US videogame retailer GameStop, are taking on short sellers and making their brokers nervous enough to cut off margin lending.

The Kospi has risen 3.58 per cent so far this year, and gained 11.1 per cent in the previous 30 trading sessions.

The trading volume during the session in the Kospi index was 971.52 million shares. Of the total traded issues of 910, the number of advancing shares was 64.

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REUTERS