Seoul shares a tad lower in late-morning trade

SEOUL, July 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korean stocks traded marginally lower late Wednesday morning as institutional investors reduced holdings of tech blue chips, outweighing gains among ship builders, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 0.02 percent, or 0.5 point, to 2,161.25 as of 11:20 a.m. Hynix Semiconductor tumbled as much as 7.86 percent after the world's leading shipyard Hyundai Heavy Industries said earlier in the morning it would not bid for a major stake in the chipmaker, countering market expectations. Hyundai Heavy spiked more than 6 percent. Other technology companies also traded in negative territory. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics shed nearly 1 percent and LG Display slumped more than 2 percent after a market report showed that display panel prices failed to make a rebound this month. The local currency was trading at 1,064.25 won to the greenback as of 11:20 a.m., up 2.05 won from Tuesday's close.