Seoul shares staged a mild recovery in thin trade on Tuesday as investors remained cautious on the global economic outlook ahead of the Lunar New Year Holidays. "Besides the long holidays ahead, growing concerns over uncertainties in the global economy weighed on the gaining trend during the day," said Lee Sang-jun, a market analyst at Goldenbridge Investment & Securities.
The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) ended up 0.11 percent at 2,072.03 points. The KOSPI 200 March futures index ended down 0.15 points at 274.0. The KOSPI 200 spot index rose 0.33 points to 273.45. The junior Kosdaq market rose 0.6 percent to 524.50. Foreign investors continued selling for a third consecutive session, unloading a net 146.2 billion won ($131.1 million) worth of stocks.
Institutions were buyers of a net 69.1 billion won. The world's No 3 steelmaker POSCO climbed as much as 3.4 percent on growing optimism over its overseas growth prospects after India gave a nod to its long-delayed project to build a $12 billion steel mill.
"The approval will help POSCO draw up a blueprint for its overseas expansion to boost capacity." said Bang Min-jin, an analyst at Solomon Investment & Securities. Financial issues rose on a positive outlook for this year and improved margins, shrugging off fears that the anti-government protests in Egypt may rattle the local financial market.
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