South Korean shares gain more than 1% as chip, auto stocks jump

SEOUL: Round-up of South Korean financial markets:

South Korean shares post longest run of declines in 8 months, chipmakers top drag

• South Korean shares rose more than 1% on Thursday after a seven-session slide, with chip and auto stocks leading the gains.

• The benchmark KOSPI rose 29.25 points, or 1.16%, to 2,542.62 by 0153 GMT, after hitting its lowest level since early August in the previous session.

• Chipmaker SK Hynix rose 5.53%, tracking US artificial intelligence firm Nvidia’s overnight jump of 8%.

• Rival Samsung Electronics rose 0.62%, after Reuters reported that the world’s top maker of smartphones, TVs and memory chips, is cutting up to 30% of its overseas staff at some divisions.

• Hyundai Motor climbed 3.13% and sister automaker Kia Corp gained 3.12%. The companies are likely to be among the biggest gainers from the government’s market reform measures, according to analysts.

• South Korea’s market watchdog stressed the role of the public pension fund to ensure the success of ongoing capital market reforms, as the fund which has been aggressively raising overseas investments pledged to look at domestic opportunities.

• Of the total 932 traded issues, 692 shares advanced, while 185 declined.

• Foreigners were net sellers of shares worth 133.0 billion won ($99.29 million).

• The won was quoted at 1,341.3 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, little changed from its previous close at 1,341.5.

• In money and debt markets, September futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.14 point to 105.88.

• The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by 1.6 basis points to 2.865%, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 2.2 basis points to 2.969%.