Seoul shares trim earlier gains as investors lock in profits

Seoul, Aug 18 (AHN) Seoul shares trimmed earlier gains late on Tuesday morning on profit-taking amid fading hopes for a deal to end the war between the United States and Iran.

After opening 2 percent higher, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) pared its gains to trade 48.32 points, or 0.69 percent, higher at 7,026.26 as of 11:20 am, reports Yonhap news agency.

Retail investors and institutions sold a net 804.7 billion won (US$570 million) and 219.9 billion won worth of stocks, respectively, while foreigners bought a net 1.07 trillion won.

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.51 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite declined 0.32 percent.

Elevated oil prices stoked inflation concerns, while prospects for a deal with Iran dimmed after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was not interested in extending an agreement with Iran that was set to expire.

In Seoul, tech stocks continued to lead gains.

Market bellwether Samsung Electronics rose 0.46 percent, and its chipmaking rival SK hynix jumped 4.07 percent.

Leading refiner SK Innovation climbed 3.11 percent, and shipping firm HMM surged 6.12 percent.

Among decliners, top carmaker Hyundai Motor fell 1.77 percent and defense giant Hanwha Aerospace declined 1.55 percent.

The Korean won was trading at 1,411.45 won against the U.S. dollar as of 11:20 a.m., up 4.15 won from the previous stock market session's close.

Meanwhile, local investors are again borrowing a large amount in loans to buy local stocks as the country's stock market rebounded from its deep trough, market data showed.

The amount of money borrowed to buy stocks, the so-called margin debt, reached 30.93 trillion won (US$21.8 billion) as of Thursday, up from 27.44 trillion won on Aug. 3, according to the data compiled by the Korea Financial Investment Association (KOFIA).

The upturn came as market heavyweights, such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, sharply recovered from their turbulence caused by woes over the profitability of artificial intelligence (AI)-related investment.

—AHN

na/