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Korean stocks begin strong Thursday on blue chip battery and automakers

Published: 27 Oct. 2022, 10:23

Electronic display boards at Hana Bank in central Seoul show stock and foreign exchange markets Thursday morning. [YONHAP]

Stocks got off to a strong start Thursday, buoyed by gains in blue chip battery and automakers, bucking overnight drops on Wall Street.

The benchmark Kospi rose 22.38 points, or 0.99 percent, to 2,271.94 in the first 20 minutes of trading.

The S&P and Nasdaq finished lower Wednesday (local time), with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing a tad higher, largely dampened by weaker earnings reports by major tech firms, including Microsoft and Alphabet.

In Seoul, battery producer LG Energy Solution, the second-largest listed firm by market cap, rose more than 2 percent and Samsung SDI jumped over 3 percent.

Hyundai Motor also climbed about 1.6 percent.

In contrast, Samsung Electronics slipped 0.2 percent, shortly after it reported a 30 percent decline in its third-quarter operating profit.

SK hynix was also down about 0.4 percent.

The local currency started off rising sharply against the dollar and was trading at 1,414.30 won as of 9:20 a.m., up 12.3 won from Wednesday's close.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO, YONHAP [[email protected]]