Seoul: Seoul stocks snapped their four-day losing streak to close sharply higher Wednesday, as investors went bargain hunting for major tech shares and semiconductors. The Korean won fell against the U.S. dollar. After opening slightly lower, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed up 90.71 points, or 1.37 percent, to 6,717.97.
According to Yonhap News Agency, trade volume was light at 197.7 million shares worth 15.9 trillion won (US$11.6 billion). Despite the gains, losers outnumbered winners 576 to 303. Institutional investors were net buyers, scooping up 1.21 trillion won worth of shares, while retail and foreign investors were net sellers, offloading a combined 2.87 trillion won.
"Investors seemed to have assessed the recent decline in the KOSPI was too much... bargain hunting was focused on the two semiconductor giants as the memory uptrend story still remains intact," Lee Kyoung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities, commented. Investors are now keeping an eye on the policy meeting results from the U.S. Federal Reserve, which is likely to carry out a rate-hike decision.
In Seoul, semiconductors strengthened, while other market heavyweights lost ground. Top-cap Samsung Electronics rose 2.01 percent to 253,500 won, while SK hynix jumped 4.08 percent to 1,759,000 won. In contrast, industry leader Hyundai Motor shed 1.36 percent to 362,000 won, defense giant Hanwha Aerospace inched down 0.75 percent to 1,055,000 won and bio firm Celltrion slid 0.17 percent to 177,200 won.
The Korean won was quoted at 1,368.6 won as of 3:30 p.m., down 9.2 won from the previous stock trading session's close.