South Korean shares rebound as retail investors rush to buy (updated)

Samsung Electronics Co

Yesterday 08:07

Updates to market close

    SEOUL, June 24 (Reuters) - South Korea's stock benchmark staged a sharp recovery on Wednesday, rebounding more than 3% after a nearly 10% plunge a day earlier, as retail investors rushed to buy the dip.
The benchmark KOSPI .KS11 closed up 267.18 points, or 3.26%, at 8,471.02, after rising as much as 4.55% during the session.
Leading the index higher, Samsung Electronics 005930.KS rose 9.84%, following a media report that the chipmaker plans a share buyback programme worth about 90 trillion won ($58.4 billion). Peer SK Hynix 000660.KS gained 0.98%.
The rebound recouped a massive chunk of the previous session's double-digit losses as retail investors flooded the order books, said Seo Sang-young, a strategist at Mirae Asset Securities Co.
"Retail investors going into leveraged ETFs is what is driving this volatility, as many were waiting for chances to go into the market out of FOMO (Fear of missing out)," Seo said.
"More volatilities are ahead, as Micron is due to report earnings soon while the U.S. is waiting for inflation and jobs data."
Global index provider MSCI kept South Korea in its emerging-market category, citing long-standing accessibility issues related to the onshore foreign exchange market in its annual market-classification review on Tuesday. 
"The impact of MSCI's decision on the market was limited today because the issue was already brought up once last week," Kim Joon-young, an analyst at iM Securities, said, adding that the previous session was a temporary correction driven by high volatility in both directions. 
Of the total 918 traded issues, 516 shares advanced, while 367 declined.
Foreigners were net sellers of shares worth 4.6 trillion won.
The won was quoted down 0.56% on the day at 1,541.8 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform KRW=KFTC.
The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield KR3YT=RR rose by 0.4 basis points to 3.776%, while the benchmark 10-year yield KR10YT=RR fell by 0.9 basis points to 4.169%.

($1 = 1,542.3400 won)

 (Reporting by Cynthia Kim and Jihoon Lee; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
 ((Cynthia.Kim@thomsonreuters.com; 822 3704 5655; Reuters Messaging: cynthia.kim.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))