Seoul shares pare earlier losses on institutional buying amid AI trade reassessment

SEOUL, July 8 (Yonhap) -- Seoul shares erased some of their earlier losses late Wednesday morning on institutional buying, as investors continued to reassess the next phase of the artificial intelligence (AI) trade.

After opening 2.7 percent lower, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) pared earlier losses, trading down 151.89 points, or 1.98 percent, at 7,504.42 as of 11:20 a.m.

Local stocks declined in line with overnight losses on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.25 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite declined 1.16 percent.

Institutions bought a net 1.02 trillion won (US$674 million) worth of stocks, while foreigners and individuals sold a net 467.27 billion won and 561.48 billion won, respectively.

Investors are increasingly rotating out of technology stocks and into other sectors as they focus on whether rising capital spending, intensifying competition and expanding production capacity will generate the earnings growth needed to justify elevated valuations of technology companies.

In Seoul, large-cap stocks were mixed.

Market bellwether Samsung Electronics fell 2.87 percent, and leading wireless services provider SK Telecom declined 1.5 percent.

Top carmaker Hyundai Motor dropped 1.88 percent, and defense company Hanwha Aerospace plunged 8.2 percent.

Among gainers, chip giant SK hynix rose 2.45 percent, Samsung Securities gained 0.17 percent, and S-Oil climbed 4.3 percent.

The Korean won was trading at 1,513.35 won per U.S. dollar as of 11:20 a.m., up 2.45 won from the previous session.