Seoul shares turn lower led by refiners, insurers

(Updates to mid-morning)

By Park Jung-youn

SEOUL, June 20 (Reuters) - Seoul shares traded lower after
opening positive on Friday, with losses by refiners and insurers
outweighing gains by airlines and some exporters on retreating
oil prices and Wall Street gains overnight.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index was down 0.74
percent at 1,727.89 points as of 0154 GMT, after opening 0.7
percent higher.

"Investors are still skittish about inflation despite oil's
fall, especially since the fall was due to expectations of slower
Chinese demand," said Lee Sun-yeob, a market analyst at
Goodmorning Shinhan Securities.

"Eyes are on OPEC's oil meeting over the weekend, the U.S.
interest rate decision next week, and other important economic
data from the United States," Lee added.

Shares in crude refiners fell across the board after South
Korea's Fair Trade Commission said on Thursday that it had
decided to abolish regulations requiring gas stations to carry
one particular company's oil products.

"[The change] will intensify competition among crude
refiners," said Choi Yong-goo, an analyst at Daewoo Securities.

Shares in GS Holdings (078930.KS), a holding company of South
Korea's second-largest refiner GS Caltex, tumbled 6.27 percent to
41,100 won and SK Energy (096770.KS), the country's top refiner,
dropped 4.39 percent to 109,000 won. S-Oil (010950.KS) fell 3.68
percent to 68,000 won.

Casualty insurers also struggled after their March embedded
values (EV) came out weaker than expected on Thursday, analysts
said.

Samsung Fire & Marine (000810.KS) fell 5.76 percent to
221,000 won and Hyundai Marine % Fire (001450.KS) lost 3.48
percent to 23,600 won.

"Foreigners are selling Samsung F&M particularly heavily.
It's EV simply didn't come out strong enough," said Park
Seok-hyun, an analyst at Meritz Securities.

Shares in Dongwon F&B (049770.KS) jumped 3.46 percent to
44,800 won after local newspaper report on Friday said Dongwon
Group is expected to buy the StarKist seafood business from Del
Monte Foods Co (DLM.N) for around $300 million.

Technology shares continued to struggle on Friday on
persistent worries about consumer demand for electronics amid
mounting stagflation concerns, pushing Hynix Semiconductor
(000660.KS) down by 1.97 percent to 27,300 won.

"Earnings expectations for tech companies are being adjusted
a bit lower," said Kim Young-june, an analyst at Kyobo
Securities.

"NAND Flash prices have turned weak lately, and investors are
getting increasingly uneasy about Hynix, which had already posted
large losses in the first quarter."

Kim added however added that Hynix's recent investments in
Taiwan's Phison (8299.TWO) and ProMOS Technologies (5387.TWO)
should pay off in the long term as they are expected to boost the
firm's competitiveness.

Energy-price sensitive issues such as Korean Air Line
(003490.KS) and Asiana Airlines (020560.KS) advanced after U.S.
crude CLc1 plunged to settle at $131.93 a barrel, helping to
ease concerns about their profitability.

Korean Air climbed 2.68 percent to 53,700 won and Asiana
Airlines gained 1.92 percent to 5,840 won.