South Korean shares fell on Wednesday as they traded ex-dividend, standing for investors being locked out of rights to dividend payouts for listed companies this year.

The deadline for rights to dividend payouts ended yesterday.

The won, South Korea’s currency weakened, while the benchmark bond yield rose.

The benchmark KOSPI tumbled 8.91 points at 0.34 per cent to 2,593.68 by 01:01 GMT.

Chipmaker Samsung Electronics grew 0.78 per cent while peer SK Hynix dipped 0.99 per cent.

Battery maker LG Energy Solution also registered an uptick of 0.96 per cent.

Hyundai Motor shed 0.55 per cent while sister automaker Kia Corp lost 0.10 per cent.

Search engine Naver and instant messenger Kakao were up 0.46 per cent and unchanged respectively.

Of the total 937 traded issues, 201 shares advanced, while 701 declined.

Foreigners did not sell shares worth 114.8 billion won ($88.60 million) on the main board on Wednesday. The won was quoted at 1,295.4 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.07 per cent lower than its previous close at 1,294.5.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,295.5 per dollar, down 0.1 per cent on Wednesday, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,292.5.

The KOSPI rose by 15.98 per cent so far in 2023, gaining 8.3 per cent in the previous 30 trading sessions. The won has lost 2.4 per cent against the dollar so far this year.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.01 points to 105.17. The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by 0.6 basis points to 3.222 per cent while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 1.7 basis points to 3.278 per cent.

(With Reuters Inputs)