Kospi reaches highest in almost 6 months
Seoul’s main bourse reached its highest in nearly six months, largely thanks to net purchasing by institutional and foreign investors, backed by growing optimism that the U.S. Fed may not be raising the near-zero interest rate anytime soon.The benchmark Kospi jumped up 42.58 points, or 2.14 percent, to close at 2,029.91. The last time the Korean primary market closed at this level was Sept. 26 when it reached 2,031.64.
Investors are anticipating the Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting and policy statement, which is to be held on Wednesday.
Institutional investors bought today after selling for 14 consecutive trading days. Foreign investors have been loading up with Korean stocks in the last two trading days.
The upbeat momentum was clearly visible among the blue chips.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics rose to 1.5 million won ($1,329) during the day before closing the market at 1,497,000 won, up 1.84 percent from Monday.
This is the first time since December 2013 that the Korean tech company’s share has reached 1.5 million won. Samsung shares have been on an upbeat momentum lately due to positive expectations over the recent release of the company’s Galaxy S6, its latest smartphone.
Market experts are projecting that the company’s first-quarter performances will rise more than the market’s estimate, mostly on the back of the success of the phone and the computer chip division’s strong performance.
Samsung Electronics’ market capitalization as of Tuesday exceeded 220 trillion won and now accounts for 17 percent of the Kospi’s combined market cap.
Other major shares have also seen their stock value rise.
Hyundai Motor surged 3.70 percent to 182,000 won. SK Hynix increased 0.98 percent to 46,250. Naver inclined 2.64 percent to 660,000 won. Samsung SDS sprang up 7.31 percent to 279,000 won. LG Chem was up 3.40 percent to 228,000 won.
The won halted a six-day drop as the greenback fell before a Federal Reserve meeting that may provide clues as to when the U.S. will raise interest rates.
BY KIM YOUNG-SHIN, BLOOMBERG [kim.youngshin@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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