South Korean stocks ended slightly lower Tuesday on increased selling by foreigners and institutions.

The Korean won fell against the US dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 6.41 points, or 0.30 percent, to 2,161.10

Bae Sung-young, a market analyst at KB Securities Co., said the foreign selloff and profit-taking by investors are to blame for losses in the main bourse.

Institutions remained net sellers of local stocks, selling more than 123 billion won ($109 million) and foreigners sold a net 102 billion won worth of stocks on profit-taking.

Kim Ye-eun, an analyst at Cape Investment & Securities, said gains in Samsung Electronics helped narrow earlier losses in the main index.

Most large-cap stocks were mixed across the board.

Market bellwether Samsung Electronics rose 1.54 percent to 2,104,000 won, and SK Telecom, the No. 1 mobile carrier in the country, was up 1.18 percent to 257,000 won.

Meanwhile, No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix Inc. fell 1.54 percent to 51,000 won, and top automaker Hyundai Motor was down 2.88 percent to 152,000 won.

The local currency closed at 1,121.90 won against the US dollar, down 6.60 won from the previous session's close. 

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed higher. The yield on three-year Treasurys fell 2.2 basis points to 1.646 percent and the return on the benchmark five-year government bond shed 2.5 basis points to 1.808 percent. (Yonhap)