South Korean shares rise on chip surge, but set to end week lower
- The benchmark KOSPI was up 336.78 points, or 4.62%, at 7,628.69
SEOUL: Round-up of South Korean financial markets:
South Korean shares rose more than 4% on Friday, led by index heavyweight chipmakers, but were still headed for a third straight weekly decline after a volatile week driven by concerns over AI demand.
The benchmark KOSPI was up 336.78 points, or 4.62%, at 7,628.69 as of 0152 GMT. It has fallen 6.1% so far this week amid heightened volatility in chipmaker stocks on AI worries.
The Nasdaq ended sharply higher on Thursday, as Micron Technology fuelled a rally in chip stocks that eclipsed fears that renewed US and Iranian attacks might prolong the Middle East conflict and fuel inflation.
“It seems appropriate to take the scenario of the stock market re-entering a recovery path as the base case, as AI investment hopes are recovering and the rise in bond yields is being limited,” said Han Ji-young, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities.
Among index heavyweights, chipmaker Samsung Electronics rose 5.40%, while peer SK Hynix gained 2.10%. Battery maker LG Energy Solution climbed 5.10%.
SK Hynix priced its American Depositary Receipts at $149 on Thursday raising about $26.5 billion, a US regulatory filing showed, highlighting strong investor appetite for a pivotal chipmaker in AI supply chains.
Hyundai Motor and sister automaker Kia Corp were up 4.94% and 3.04%, respectively. Steelmaker POSCO Holdings added 7.41%, while drugmaker Samsung BioLogics rose 5.96%. Of the total 913 traded issues, 824 shares advanced, while 74 declined.
Foreigners were net sellers of shares worth 529.1 billion won ($349.84 million).
The won was quoted at 1,511.3 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.12% lower than its previous close at 1,509.5.
South Korea’s top currency diplomat warned that the current dollar-won exchange rate is still misaligned with the economy’s fundamentals, and that his team has ample room to stabilise the market if needed.
The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield fell by 2.4 basis points to 3.787%, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 2.0 basis points to 4.260%.