Seoul shares ended flat on Monday with sharp falls in shipbuilders including Daewoo Shipbuilding weighing, but firm gains in steelmakers like POSCO helped. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index ended up 0.11 percent at 2,056.39 points. The KOSPI 200 June futures index finished up 0.5 points at 274.10. The KOSPI 200 spot index rose 0.47 points to 272.13. The junior Kosdaq market ended down 0.36 percent at 512.74.
South Korean companies start reporting first-quarter earnings next month. Foreign investors were buyers of a net 168.2 billion won ($151.4 million) worth of stocks, picking up shares for a ninth straight session, their longest buying streak since last October.
Shares in POSCO jumped 2.8 percent after local media reported the world's No 3 steelmaker plans to raise prices of key products including hot-rolled steel and shipbuilding plates by 15 to 20 percent as early as April. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering dropped 7.03 percent and Hyundai Heavy Industries shed 1.12 percent.
STX Group related shares including STX Corp and STX Offshore & Shipbuilding tumbled on market rumours picked up in local financial media that the group's construction unit was about to file for bankruptcy, which the group denied. STX Corp, which leads the group, finished down 7.7 percent and STX Offshore & Shipbuilding, a key unit of the group, fell 8.6 percent.
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