[THE INVESTOR] South Korean stocks edged down late morning on Sept. 1, as both foreigners and institutions offloaded shares a day before the release of key US job data.

The benchmark KOSPI dropped 9.14 points, or 0.45 percent, to 2,025.51 as of 11:20 a.m.

Individuals were scooping up stocks, while foreigners and institutional traders were net sellers.

The market is awaiting the US employment data for August to be issued on Sept. 2 for a further hint of how soon the Federal Reserve will raise the key interest rate.

“It can be a key point in predicting if a rate hike is possible in September,” said Kim Jing-young, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities. “In the short term, however, the KOSPI may continue to proceed with no clear direction.”

Yoo Seung-min, an analyst at Samsung Securities, also said the KOSPI will likely stay in a tight range throughout this month.

“The KOSPI is expected to waver between 1,980 points and 2,080 points in September,” he said. “Improved corporate earnings are positive but more time is needed for the KOSPI to rise above the range, which requires the recovery of fundamentals.”

Many large caps were in negative terrain.

Samsung Electronics lost 2.90 percent and global chipmaker SK hynix declined 0.27 percent. The state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. fell 0.52 percent and leading automaker Hyundai Motor shed 0.38 percent.

The South Korean won was trading at 1,114.30 won against the US greenback, down 2.50 won from the previous session’s close.


(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)