S.Korean stocks surge; up 50% from March lows as techs lead relief rally
03/06/2020 09:34
* KOSPI jump near 3%, foreigners net buyers
* Korean won strengthens versus U.S. dollar
* South Korea benchmark bond yield rises
* For the midday report, please click urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2AO025
By Joori Roh
SEOUL, June 3 (Reuters) - South Korean stocks surged nearly
3% to close at a more than three-month high on Wednesday, led by
bluechips such as Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor and as
global economic recovery hopes offset concerns over Sino-U.S.
tensions.
The benchmark KOSPI .KS11 ended up 2.87% at 2,147, its
highest closing level since Feb. 21, before the global spread of
the novel coronavirus.
The index is also up nearly 50% from its March lows, in the
steepest equity relief rally across Asia, aided by the
government handling the COVID-19 crisis well. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nAZN21N400
"...bold fiscal expansion and monetary easing have been
supporting stock prices even as economic indicators yet show
clear signs of improvement," said Choi Seok-won, head of SK
Securities' research centre.
Chip giants Samsung Electronics 005930.KS and SK Hynix
000660.KS surged over 6% each, while Hyundai Motor Co
005380.KS gained 5.9% after its global sales jumped.
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2DG076
"Investors appear to be rushing to buy stocks on belief that
economic situations will gradually improve towards next year,"
said Yoon Ji-ho, head of eBEST Investment & Securities' research
centre, adding, factors such as the U.S. election and future
virus development need to be considered.
Foreigners bought net 204.1 billion won ($167.83 million)
worth of shares on the main board, but they have offloaded
shares worth around 23.3 trillion won so far this year.
Tariq Dennison, managing director at GFM Asset Management in
Hong Kong, roughly doubled a small exposure to Korea in March,
mostly through buying KOSPI futures and index-tracking funds.
"I thought Korea as a whole market was a high-quality market
that was really too cheap to stay that cheap," he said, adding
that he still thought the market is attractive "but we don't
feel the same level of hurry that we did in March."
The won ended 0.71% higher at 1,216.8 per dollar on the
onshore settlement platform KRW=KFTC , in its strongest daily
gain since April 10.
The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by
0.1 basis points to 0.861% in late afternoon trade, while the
benchmark 10-year yield rose by 3.4 basis points to 1.421%.
($1 = 1,216.1300 won)
(Reporting by Joori Roh, Additional reporting by Tom Westbrook
in Singapore and Choonsik Yoo in Seoul; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
((joori.roh@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 6936 1493;))