South Korean shares hit more than 21-month high as battery makers rally

LG Chem

12/03/2024 06:48

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      KOSPI rises, foreigners net sellers
    

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      Korean won little changed against dollar
    

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      South Korea benchmark bond yield steady
    

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      For the midday report, please click  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N3FQ038
    

  
       SEOUL, March 12 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean
financial markets:
    ** South Korean shares rose on Tuesday, led by battery
makers, to hit their highest in more than 21 months. 
    ** The benchmark KOSPI  .KS11  closed up 21.97 points, or
0.83%, at 2,681.81, its highest since late May 2022. 
    ** "Battery makers led the gains on the benchmark index,
after a slight rise in Tesla, while there also are hopes for
mass production of solid-state batteries by Samsung SDI," Cho
Jun-kee, an analyst at SK Securities, said.
    ** Battery maker LG Energy Solution  373220.KS  climbed
4.74%, after its customer Tesla  TSLA.O  rose more than 1% on
Monday. Peers Samsung SDI  006400.KS  and SK Innovation
 096770.KS  jumped 11.12% and 1.94%, respectively.
    ** Battery materials makers LG Chem  051910.KS  and POSCO
Holdings  005490.KS  rose 3.33% and 2.97%, respectively.     
    ** Of the total 934 traded issues, 368 shares advanced,
while 496 declined.
    ** Foreigners were net sellers of shares worth 391.3 billion
won (about $299 million) on the main board. 
    ** The won ended onshore trade  KRW=KFTC  at 1,311.0 per
dollar, 0.05% lower than its previous close at 1,310.3. 
    ** In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year
treasury bonds  KTBc1  was unchanged at 104.80.
    ** The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield
fell by 0.2 basis points to 3.273%, while the benchmark 10-year
yield fell by 0.3 basis points to 3.337%.

($1 = 1,310.1900 won)

 (Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
 ((jihoon.lee@thomsonreuters.com;))