South Korea shares rise on chip rebound after AI-led selloff

Samsung Electronics

Mon 02:33

KOSPI rises, foreigners net sellers
Korean won strengthens against dollar
South Korea benchmark bond yield rises
SEOUL, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean financial markets:
        
** South Korean shares rose 1% on Monday as chipmakers rebounded from an AI-driven selloff last week, with investors shrugging off concerns surrounding Nvidia after assurances that the country's contracted GPU supplies would not be affected.  

        ** The benchmark KOSPI .KS11 was up 1.57%, or 79.58 points, at 5,139.27 as of 0146 GMT. On Friday, the index dropped 6% to its lowest close since March 31. 
** A senior South Korean official said issues currently affecting Nvidia NVDA.O would not affect South Korea's contracted supply of graphics processing units (GPUs) from the US AI chipmaker.

        ** Wall Street recovered some ground on Friday, a day after fears about tighter US regulation of AI wiped trillions of dollars off world stock markets and triggered a dash for government bonds. .N
** The semiconductor sector carries significant weight in South Korean equities, with memory-chip giants Samsung Electronics 005930.KS and SK Hynix 000660.KS among the market's biggest constituents and key beneficiaries of AI-related demand. 
** "Unless there is more bad news from macroeconomic and AI earnings events this week, it is unlikely a market crash like the one last week will repeat again," Han Ji-young, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities, said on Monday. 
** Shares of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix rebounded from sharp losses to climb 2.9% and 4.7%, respectively. 
** Among other heavyweights, battery maker LG Energy Solution 373220.KS slid 2.37%, while Hyundai Motor 005380.KS and sister automaker Kia Corp 000270.KS were down 0.89% and 2.59%, respectively.
** Steelmaker POSCO Holdings 005490.KS shed 0.19%, while drugmaker Samsung BioLogics 207940.KS rose 2.37%.
** Of the total 910 traded issues, 408 shares advanced, while 445 declined.
** Foreigners were net sellers of shares worth 512.1 billion won ($375.54 million).
** The won was quoted at 1,360.6 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform KRW=KFTC, 0.18% higher than its previous close at 1,363.0.
** The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield KR3YT=RR rose 2.4 basis points to 3.646%, while the benchmark 10-year yield KR10YT=RR rose 2.5 basis points to 3.877%.

($1 = 1,363.6400 won)

 (Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
 ((jihoon.lee@thomsonreuters.com;))