Stocks rally 2.2% as Korea elects a conservative president

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi closing at 2,680.32 points on Thursday, up 57.92 points, or 2.21 percent, from the previous trading day. [YONHAP]

Stocks rose more than 2 percent Thursday to end a three-day losing streak as sentiment turned positive following the election of Yoon Suk-yeol as president.

The benchmark Kospi rose 2.21 percent, or 57.92 points, to close at 2,680.32 points on Thursday. The won steeply rose against the dollar.

Trading volume was moderate at about 604 million shares worth some 13.5 trillion won ($11 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 698 to 184.

Institutions purchased a net 766 billion won, while foreign investors net sold 427 billion won. Individual investors net offloaded 354 billion won.

Stocks opened sharply higher, breaking the 2,700-level during intraday trading due to the overnight rallies on Wall Street that caused a plunge in oil prices.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite climbed 3.59 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2 percent, largely due to the oil prices that fell more than 10 percent on the expectations of a production increase.

Investor sentiment grew on the eased uncertainties as the country elected the new president.

Most large caps closed higher, with construction, energy and tech leading the market gain.

Samsung Electronics gained 2.45 percent to 71,200 won, and chipmaker SK hynix rose 1.69 percent to 120,000 won. Hyundai Motor added 0.6 percent to 169,000 won.

Kosdaq-listed Bosung Powertec surged 15.9 percent to close at 6,840 won. Iljin Power closed at 20,950 won, up 4.5 percent. Woori Technology rose 4.41 percent to 2,250 won.

“The two main sectors that Yoon’s pledges differ from the current administration are real estate and nuclear energy,” said Kim Young-hwan, senior analyst at the NH Investment & Securities. “Shares of construction and nuclear energy companies are expected to rise.”

Construction firms Hyundai Development Company jumped 8.3 percent to 18,350 won. GS E&C rose 8.2 percent to 46,300 won while Daewoo E&C closed up 3.86 percent.

Yoon pledged to increase apartment supplies by 2.5 million units, of which 500,000 will be public housing, for five years to stabilize the real estate market.

Naver rose 8.54 percent to 330,500 won and Kakao added 8.6 percent to 100,000 won. The increases were driven by people’s expectation on the new president that he would ease regulations against “platform” companies.

Shares of “platform” companies, which are as defined as essentially e-commerce companies and online providers of services and their intermediaries, experienced sharp drop last year as the Moon administration tightened the regulation to prevent the big companies from abusing power when dealing with smaller and more vulnerable enterprises.

AhnLab, a software company founded by Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party, rose 4.24 percent to 73,800 won.

Samsung Biologics, Korea’s largest biotechnology company, closed at 793,000 won, up 3.12 percent and SK Bioscience climbed 3.1 percent to 150,000 won. Celltrion advanced 1.76 percent 173,000 won.

The local currency closed at 1,228 won against the dollar, down 9 won from the previous session's close.

The Kosdaq edged up 2.18 percent to 889.08 points.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed mixed. The yield on three-year government bonds lost 2 basis points to 2.67 percent, and the yield on the benchmark 10-year government bond added 10.6 basis points to 1.95 percent.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]