Stocks up Thursday as Fed chief hints at slowing pace of rate hikes

Finance

Published: 28 Jul. 2022, 17:18 Updated: 28 Jul. 2022, 17:25

Stocks up Thursday as Fed chief hints at slowing pace of rate hikes

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi closing at 2,435.27 points on Thursday, up 19.74 points, or 0.82 percent, from the previous trading day. [NEWS1]

Stocks advanced for a fourth consecutive session Thursday as the chief of the U.S. Federal Reserve has hinted at slowing the pace of its interest rate hikes down the road. The won sharply rose against the dollar.

The benchmark Kospi added 19.74 points, or 0.82 percent, to close at 2,435.27 points, the highest figure since June 17.

Trading volume was slightly heavy at 477.4 million shares worth some 9.01 trillion won ($6.93 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 481 to 345.

Foreigners bought a net 409.3 billion won worth of shares, while retail investors offloaded a net 328 billion won and institutions a net 57.7 billion won.

The market opened higher and maintained the upward momentum, as the U.S. central bank on Wednesday announced a 0.75 percentage-point interest rate hike to put its policy rate in a range of 2.25 to 2.5 percent.

It is the highest level since 2018 but a widely expected level.

The U.S. stock market hailed the latest developments. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.37 percent Wednesday, and the Nasdaq Composite surged 4.06 percent.

"Powell expressed confidence in the economic situation and cited a need to slow the pace of increases. The comment boosted investor sentiment, particularly overseas buyers," Seo Sang-young, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities said.

In Seoul, LG Energy Solution soared 5.59 percent to 415,500 won, and LG Chem surged 5.84 percent to 598,000 won. Samsung Electronics added 0.16 percent to 61,900 won, and Samsung SDI climbed 3.96 percent to 578,000 won.

But chipmaker SK hynix declined 0.6 percent to 99,400 won. Hyundai Motor fell 0.51 percent to 195,000 won, and Kia shed 0.37 percent to 80,500 won.

The local currency closed at 1,296.10 won against the dollar, down 17.20 won from the previous session's close.

The Kosdaq gained 2.62 points, or 0.33 percent, to close at 798.32 points.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed mixed. The yield on three-year government bonds gained 3.4 basis points to 3.135 percent, and the yield on the 10-year government bond lost 1.5 basis points to 2.78 percent.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO, YONHAP [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]