SEOUL: South Korean stocks closed 0.11 percent lower on Tuesday, led by losses in chipmakers, as China’s bid to prop up its semiconductor industry casts cloud over South Korean chip makers, analysts said. The Korean won hit a two-year low against the U.S. dollar.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 2.29 points to close at 2,059.23. Trading volume was heavy at 496.98 million shares worth 6.44 trillion won (US$5.69 billion), with winners beating decliners 536 to 284.
Analysts said the market attention shifted from the eurozone to domestic news after Greece and its international creditors struck a deal on Monday on a third bailout program to prevent the indebted-nation from leaving the single currency bloc.
“Expectations for a tentative deal on the Greek debt package had been already reflected in the local stock market, which also got a boost from a rebound in the Chinese stock market,” Ryu Yong-seok, an analyst at Hyundai Securities, said. “Investors acted on corporate news and bought stocks that had recently been battered.”
Tech shares tumbled after the Wall Street Journal reported that Tsinghua Unigroup, China’s state-run chip designer, made a US$23 billion offer to buy U.S. semiconductor maker Micron Technology, which could intensify competition in the global chip market dominated by Korean chipmakers.
Market kingpin Samsung Electronics declined 3.24 percent to 1,225,000 won, marking the biggest daily loss since May 27. SK hynix, the world’s second-largest chipmaker, plunged 6.66 percent to 37,850 won on the grim outlook for its second-quarter earnings, falling to the lowest level of the year.
The two Korean tech giants grabbed a record 75 percent share of the global mobile dynamic random access memory (DRAM) market in the first quarter, while Micron took up 22.6 percent, according to industry tracker TrendForce.
