S. Korean shares close higher on Samsung Electronics rally, robust foreign buying

SEOUL: Round-up of South Korean financial markets: South Korean shares rose nearly 2pc on Tuesday, driven by market heavyweight Samsung Electronics, robust foreign investor buying and expectations of another US stimulus package. The won slipped, while the benchmark bond yield rose.

The benchmark KOSPI ended 39.13 points, or 1.76pc, higher at 2,256.99.

Foreigners bought net 1.31 trillion won ($1.09 billion) worth of shares on the main board, the biggest since September 2013.

Samsung Electronics rallied as much as 5.8pc, joining bigger rival TSMC, driven by growing expectations that the chipmakers may benefit from Intel Corp's plan to outsource more manufacturing.

Senate Republicans on Monday proposed a $1 trillion coronavirus aid package hammered out with the White House, paving the way for talks with Democrats on how to help Americans as expanded unemployment benefits for millions of workers expire this week.

The won ended trading at 1,196.9 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.07pc lower than its previous close at 1,196.1.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,197.2 per dollar, down 0.1pc from the previous day, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,197.8.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.74pc.

The trading volume in the KOSPI index was 851.33 million shares. Of the total traded issues of 900, the number of advancing shares was 339.

In money and debt markets, September futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.02 point to 112.19.

The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by 0.6 basis point to 0.810pc in late afternoon trade, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 1.5 basis point to 1.321pc.