Seoul shares erased earlier falls and ended up 0.4 percent on Friday as foreign investors continued buying after snapping a 10-session selling streak in the previous session, with a firm rebound in autos and technology stocks helping the market. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index finished up 0.4 percent or 8.3 points at 2,100.24 points.
Foreign investors were buyers of a net 135.8 billion won ($124.6 million) worth of stocks, picking up shares for a second straight session after snapping their longest selling streak in more than two years on Thursday. The KOSPI earlier hit as high as 2,111.36 amid market rumours South Korea may be upgraded to developed market status by equity index provider MSCI, analysts said, though a Korea Exchange official said there had been little progress in the process.
MSCI said last June that South Korea was still not ready to join the ranks of developed countries in its equity indexes. Samsung Electronics , the world's No 1 memory chip maker, rose 1.4 percent helped by a 1 percent gain in the US Philadelphia semiconductor index . Shares in Hynix Semiconductor, the world's No 2, advanced 0.6 percent. Hyundai Motor gained 2 percent. KOSPI 200 June futures rose 2.2 points to 277.55 points and the KOSPI 200 spot index climbed 1.02 points to 277.35. The junior Kosdaq market ended up 0.68 percent at 483.22.