An electronic board showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index at a dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on Friday. (Yonhap)
An electronic board showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index at a dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on Friday. (Yonhap)

Seoul shares ended slightly lower Friday on foreign selling, with China's better-than-expected economic growth falling short of boosting investor sentiment. The Korean won fell against the US dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 3.94 points, or 0.16 percent, to close at 2,523.55. The main index has risen 0.3 percent this week.

The Kospi had opened in negative terrain, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.16 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 0.89 percent.

Trade volume was moderate at 436.58 million shares worth 9.88 trillion won ($6.77 billion), with decliners outnumbering winners 444 to 434.

Foreigners sold a net 236.87 billion won worth of stocks while institutions offloaded 101.58 billion won. Retail investors bought a net 289.34 billion won.

"Foreigners turned net sellers after scooping up local stocks in the previous two sessions ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration next week," Lee Jae-won, an analyst at Shinhan Securities, said.

China's robust economic data didn't buoy the index, analysts noted.

China's economy grew 5.4 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, while reporting annual growth of 5 percent for 2024 on strong exports. Its retail sales rose 3.5 percent on-year in 2024.

In Seoul, auto and shipbuilding stocks led declines.

Top carmaker Hyundai Motor fell 3.42 percent to 211,500 won, and Hanwha Ocean, formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, dropped 1.55 percent to 50,700 won.

Market bellwether Samsung Electronics fell 1.1 percent to 53,700 won, but No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix rose 2.14 percent to 214,000 won.

Among other gainers, leading refiner SK Innovation rose 0.94 percent to 128,800 won, and state utility firm Korea Electric Power Corp. jumped 2.47 percent to 20,750 won.

The local currency was trading at 1,458.30 won against the greenback at 3:30 p.m., down 1.6 won from the previous session. (Yonhap)