Chipmakers lead rises after Wednesday’s drop
Seoul’s main stock market rebounded yesterday, led by chipmakers, after a sharp one-day loss. The benchmark Kospi closed at 1,794.24, up 10.45 points, or 0.6 percent.The main bourse started weak, after Wall Street sank overnight on concerns about interest rate hikes. But program-based buying by institutional investors pulled the market higher in the afternoon.
The purchases were concentrated on chipmakers, as the prices of dynamic random access memory chips, or DRAM, rose sharply. The spot price for the benchmark 512-megabit DRAM was up 4.1 percent yesterday, according to Dramexchange.com.
Samsung Electronics, the world’s top computer memory maker, rose 2.1 percent to 589,000 won ($635.38). No. 2 Hynix Semiconductor surged 7.3 percent, its biggest gain in a year, after several brokers forecast the chipmaker's second-quarter performance would be better than expected.
“The DRAM industry seems to have hit bottom,” said Song Myeong-seob at CJ Investment & Securities.
Shipbuilders were also strong. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering jumped 4.2 percent after it said it got $800 million in new orders and reported May profit doubled from a year earlier.
Woori Finance Holdings, the nation’s third-largest lender, gained 3.9 percent. The state-run Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. said it sold a 5 percent stake in the bank to investors at a 1.1 percent discount to Wednesday’s closing price, helping the government raise 916.8 billion won ($989 million).
Volume was 531.7 million shares worth 7.5 trillion won. Gainers led losers, 466 to 314. The secondary Kosdaq also rebounded after a one-day drop. The index climbed 13.09 points, or 1.6 percent, to close at 810.36. Trade volume was 731.3 million shares worth 2.7 trillion won. Advancing shares overwhelmed decliners, 631 to 294.
By Moon So-young Staff Writer [symoon@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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