Institutional purchases buoy Korean markets

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Institutional purchases buoy Korean markets

Korea’s stock markets had yet another sizzling day yesterday, bolstered by the strong performance of U.S. stocks and heavy purchases by institutional investors.
The benchmark Kospi surged 45.64 points, or 2.4 percent, to close at 1,983.54, after the U.S. Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 14,000-point mark for the first time ever.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics rose 3.9 percent to close at 661,000 won ($722.40)
Other blue chip shares also fared well. Kookmin Bank, Korea’s largest lender, rose 1.4 percent, and Hynix Semiconductor rose 4.4 percent. Posco, Korea’s largest steelmaker, rose 3.8 percent, pushing other steel shares higher. NI Steel gained a daily limit of 15 percent, and DC Chemical rose 4.4 percent.
LG Electronics, Asia’s second-largest mobile maker, soared 6.5 percent after posting better than expected second-quarter profits Wednesday. LG group subsidiaries gained heavily as LG.Philips LCD jumped 6.4 percent, and LG Chem climbed 2.1 percent. LG Corp. leaped 6.4 percent.
The stellar performance of local stock markets boosted shares of stockbrokers as well. Daewoo Securities, Korea’s largest stock broker, climbed 2.2 percent, and Samsung Electronics rose 3.4 percent. Hyundai Securities also gained 3.8 percent, while SK Securities leaped by a daily limit of 15 percent.
Local giant Lotte Confectionary surged 8.4 percent on heightened expectations that its profits would improve significantly on popularity of its new chocolate products and rising sales of ice cream during the summer.
Trading volume was 633 million shares, worth 8 trillion won. Advancers beat decliners, 579 to 205.
The tech-junior Kosdaq climbed 6.01 points, or 0.7 percent, to close at 825.33. Trading volume was 540.4 million shares, worth 2 trillion won.


By Jung Ha-won Staff Writer [hawon@joongang.co.kr]
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