Early losses failed to stick, with positive momentum from anHSBC Flash Purchase Managers Index showing China’s factoryoutput ticking higher, although it was not sufficient to signala return to expansionary territory.
“Trading is dead. No one is buying, yet no one is sellingeither. There is no momentum to propel shares forward amidpersistent euro zone worries and recent signs of a slowdown inUS economic recovery,” said Samsung Securities analyst KimSung bong.
Market players gave a muted response to a pledge for $430billion in fresh funding for the International Monetary Fundsecured through contributions from G20 members to contain theeuro zone debt crisis.
“The firewall is just a safety net, and an insurance policyalone isn’t enough to spark a risk rally as long as thefundamental debt issues continue to fester,” said Kim.
Turnover was the lowest in 3 1/2 months, with 3.52 trillionwon ($3.09 billion) worth of shares traded on the main bourse,78.2 percent of the daily average of 4.5 trillion won so far inApril.
For the first time since October 1994, bank loans that were at least three months overdue were higher than 8 percent of the total 1.76 trillion euros ($2.32 trillion) or 143.8 billion euros ($189.77 billion) based on data at the end of February 2012.
Foreign investors were sellers for a sixth consecutivesession, offloading a net 117.5 billion won ($103.1 million)worth of shares, taking their total to 1.08 trillion won dumpedduring the six day stretch.
Daewoo Shipbuilding& Marine Engineering Co Ltd dropped 3 percent, whileSamsung Heavy Industries Co Ltd fell 2.5 percent.
SK Networks Co Ltd surrendered modest earlygains to end 0.6 percent lower after saying on Monday that ithad canceled a plan to buy a 40 percent, $332.4 million stake inAustralia’s Cockatoo Coal Ltd Screenmaker LG Display Co Ltd outperformed witha 2.9 percent climb ahead of the announcement of itsfirst quarter earnings on Tuesday.
It was the top gainer amongtechnology peers, with analysts citing improved demand and arecovery in LCD panel prices as key strengths going forward.
The large cap benchmark KOSPI 200 index ticked 0.07percent lower, while the junior KOSDAQ index fell 0.51percent.
The US Federal Reserve is not expected to take any newpolicy steps at its meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, butinvestors will be closely watching Chairman Ben Bernanke’spost meeting news conference for clues on future easing steps.
Naomi Harris is a business journalist based in Darwin, Australia. Naomi has a passion for financial markets and breaking news stories and loves writing about business news, stock market, and economic opinions that matters most to its audience. Naomi spends a lot of time discovering and researching latest financial markets and industry news stories in order to make sure the latest and greatest stories are brought to you first on BigBoardNews.com.
