Kospi inches up 0.64% as tech shares gain ground

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi closing at 2,792.05 points on Wednesday, up 0.64 percent, or 17.66 points, from the previous trading session.[NEWS1]

Shares closed higher Wednesday as big-cap tech shares gained ground, tracking a U.S. tech rebound. The won fell in value against the dollar.

The Kospi increased 17.66 points, or 0.64 percent, to 2,792.05. The Kosdaq added 0.13 points, or 0.02 percent, to 842.12.

Trade volume was moderate at 524.6 million shares worth 11.02 trillion won ($7.9 billion), with losers outnumbering winners 510 to 355.

Foreigners purchased 502.6 billion won worth of shares, offsetting the sale of shares by retail investors and institutions worth a combined 529 billion won.

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.76 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 gained 1.26 percent and 0.39 percent, respectively, as megacap tech shares gained ground.

"Shares related to AI chips drove up the Kospi following the recovery of big tech shares on Wall Street," Lee Jae-won, an analyst at Shinhan Securities, said.

Samsung Electronics added 0.62 percent to 81,300 won, and SK hynix surged 5.33 percent to 237,000 won, tracking gains by AI chip giant Nvidia.

Hanmi Semiconductor also jumped 3.99 percent on the Nvidia effect.

Auto shares closed higher. Hyundai Motor rose 0.35 percent to 289,500 won and Kia climbed 1.4 percent to 130,800 won.

IT shares also gained ground, with Naver up 1.2 percent to 168,400 won, and Kakao up 1.46 percent to 41,600 won.

Game maker Krafton shot up 2.48 percent to 289,500 won, and SK Square soared 6.9 percent to 102,200 won.

Bio shares closed lower, with Samsung Biologics shedding 1.22 percent to 729,00 won and Celltrion dropping 0.9 percent to 176,800 won.

Financial shares closed mixed. KB Financial Group was down 0.13 percent to 78,900 won and Hana Financial Group fell 0.17 percent to 60,400 won, but Shinhan Financial Group rose 0.42 percent to 47,650 won.

The local currency ended at 1,388.70 won against the dollar, up 1.2 won from the previous session's close.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed lower. The yield on three-year government bonds rose 2.1 basis points to 3.222 percent, and the return on the benchmark U.S. 10-year government bonds gained 1.6 basis points to 4.249 percent.

BY KIM JU-YEON, YONHAP [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]