Seoul shares extend losses

Seoul shares extended losses on Friday on continued foreign selling after urgent US efforts to avoid a debt default suffered a new blow. "News that debt talks are likely to be prolonged into next week depressed investor sentiment the more the issue drags on, the higher the uncertainty will rise," Lee Jae-man, an analyst at Tong Yang Securities, said.
Some fiscally hard-line Republicans blocked a budget deficit plan proposed by their own congressional leaders. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 1.05 percent or 22.64 points to end the session at 2,133.21 points. KOSPI 200 September futures fell 3.45 points to 278.15 and the KOSPI 200 spot index lost 2.93 points to 277.11. The junior Kosdaq market finished down 0.46 percent at 536.05.
Foreign investors recorded their fifth day of selling in a row, offloading a net 139.7 billion won ($132.8 million) worth of stocks. Refiners led losers, after they posted weaker quarterly results. Top refiner SK Innovation was down 2.02 percent, while S-Oil skidded 6.29 percent.
Chipmakers gained, buoyed by a media report that Japanese rival Elpida Memory Inc had decided to slash DRAM production by 20 percent. Hynix Semiconductor Inc, the world's No 2 computer memory chip maker, climbed 2.97 percent, while top-ranked Samsung Electronics firmed 0.84 percent after announcing a 25 percent drop in quarterly profit.
"Samsung's results look better than expected, in particular mobile phones. Stronger-than-expected TV sales gave support," Jeff Kang, an analyst at Daishin Securities, said. Shares in Kia Motors, the country's No 2 carmaker, erased early gains after it posted forecast-beating quarterly results, slipping 0.13 percent, while other automakers also lost ground. One of the country's top Internet portals SK Communications continued falling on news Chinese hackers attacked its popular websites, compromising the personal information of up to 35 million users.