S.Korean stocks gain after Wall Street closes at record peaks

Barunson Entertainment & Arts

13/02/2020 02:31

* KOSPI climbs, foreigners net buyers
    * Korean won weakens versus U.S. dollar
    * South Korea benchmark bond yield steady

    SEOUL, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean financial
markets:
    
** South Korean shares rose on Thursday, tracking a rally on
Wall Street, with chipmakers leading the gains. The Korean won
and the benchmark bond yield were little changed.
    
** As of 0227 GMT, the Seoul stock market's main KOSPI  .KS11 
was up 12.07 points, or 0.54%, at 2,250.45, on track for the
third straight session of gains. 
    
** Analysts said the local market did not react much to a sharp
jump in the death toll and infections from the coronavirus
outbreak in China. 
    
** The death toll from the virus in the central Hubei province
leapt by a record 242 on Thursday, while 14,840 new cases were
reported as officials said they had adopted a new methodology
for counting infections. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2AD03G  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2AB6U4
    
** Despite reports of widespread business disruptions in China,
Wall Street closed at record highs on Wednesday on hopes that
the epidemic could be running out of steam.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2AC1PN
    
** Overnight gains in U.S. stocks lifted Seoul stocks, with
foreign investors buying local shares, particularly those of
chipmakers, said Noh Dong-kil, an analyst at NH Investment &
Securities. 
    
** Shares of Samsung Electronics  005930.KS  and SK Hynix
 000660.KS  jumped 1.8% and 3.5%, respectively. 
            
** Foreigners were net buyers of 209.0 billion won ($177.07
million) worth of shares on the main board. 
    
** Barunson Entertainment & Arts Corp  035620.KQ , the producer
of Oscar-winning movie "Parasite", soared 30% on Thursday. The
stock has more than doubled this week.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2AC28O
    
** The won was quoted at 1,181.4 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform  KRW=KFTC , 0.16% lower than its previous
close at 1,179.5.
    
** In offshore trading, the won  KRW=  was quoted at 1,179.1 per
U.S. dollar, down 0.1% from the previous day, while in
non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract
 KRW1MNDFOR=  was quoted at 1,178.2 per dollar.
    
** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
 .MIAPJ0000PUS  was up 0.28%  MKTS/GLOB . Japanese stocks
 .N225  rose 0.19%.
    
** The KOSPI has risen 2.46% so far this year, and gained 1.8%
in the previous 30 trading sessions.
    
** The trading volume during the session in the KOSPI index
 .KS11  was 253.72 million shares and, of the total traded
issues of 902, the number of advancing shares was 342.
    
** The won has lost 2.1% against the dollar so far this year.
    
** In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year
treasury bonds  KTBc1  rose 0.02 points to 110.77, while the
3-month Certificate of Deposit rate was quoted at 1.42%.
    
** The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield fell by 0.8
basis points to 1.291%, while the benchmark 10-year yield was
flat at 1.612%.
    
($1 = 1,180.3400 won)    

 (Reporting by Hayoung Choi; Editing by Aditya Soni)
 ((hayoung.choi@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 6936 1468;))