Stocks rise Thursday on hopes that Fed may slow monetary tightening

Finance

Published: 27 Oct. 2022, 17:05

Stocks rise Thursday on hopes that Fed may slow monetary tightening

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi closing at 2.288.78 points on Thursday, up 39.22 points, or 1.74 percent, from the previous trading day. [YONHAP]

Stocks rose for the second straight day Thursday on hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve may slow down its aggressive monetary tightening. The local currency gathered ground against the dollar.

The Kospi soared 39.22 points, or 1.74 percent, to close at 2,288.78. Trading volume was moderate at 579.8 million shares worth 8.34 trillion won ($5.87 billion) with gainers far outpacing decliners 770 to 111.

"The overnight fall on Wall Street has had a limited impact on the Kospi as the weaker earnings by megacap tech firms were already reflected in the market," said Seo Sang-young, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities.

The U.S. S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished lower Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing a tad higher, largely dampened by weaker earnings reports by major tech firms.

"What's drawing attention more is that the dollar is falling, which means the won will go up and that's a positive factor for foreign inflow," Seo said.

Foreigners scooped up a net 380.7 billion won worth of local equities, with institutions also buying a net 514.3 billion won. Individual investors sold off a net 903.6 billion won.

In Seoul, most large-cap shares finished bullish across the board.

Samsung Electronics rose 0.17 percent to 59,500 won. LG Energy Solution climbed 2.08 percent to 540,000 won, while Samsung SDI spiked 7.39 percent to 727,000 won.

Samsung C&T, the de facto holding company of Samsung, soared 6.25 percent to 119,000 won after it announced heir Lee Jae-yong will formally take the helm as chairman.

In contrast, SK hynix tumbled 4.15 percent to 90,000 won after reporting a plunge in its third-quarter earnings earlier this week.

The local currency ended at 1,417.00 won against the dollar, down 9.6 won from Wednesday's close.

The Kosdaq gained 11.92 points, or 1.74 percent, to close at 695.09 points.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed lower. The yield on three-year government bonds increased 1.9 basis points to 4.208 percent, and the yield on 10-year government bonds gained 1.5 basis points to 4.270 percent.

BY LIM JEONG-WON, YONHAP [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]