S.Korea stocks close up on U.S. recovery hopes; virus surge caps gains
Thursday, April 08, 2021       14:45 WIB

SEOUL, April 8 (Reuters) - South Korean shares closed up for a sixth session in a row on Thursday on optimism from the U.S. Federal Reserve's commitment to supportive policy, while worries over a surge in local coronavirus cases capped gains. The Korean won weakened, while the benchmark bond yield fell.
The benchmark KOSPI rose 5.85 points, or 0.19%, to 3,143.26 by 06:32 GMT.
Minutes of the Federal Reserve's last policy meeting showed members were in no rush to scale back their $120 billion a month of bond buying. South Korea reported 700 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, its highest daily tally since early January, and the prime minister reiterated warnings that new social distancing rules would likely be needed.
Trading volume wasn't big and it was a mixed market, after Nasdaq slipped a little, said Na Jeong-hwan, an analyst at DS Securities.
Among the heavyweights, technology giant Samsung Electronics fell 1.05% and peer SK Hynix rose 0.35%, while LG Chem fell 0.12% and Naver fell 0.78%.
Foreigners were net buyers of 107.5 billion won worth of shares on the main board.
The won was quoted at 1,117.2 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.08% lower than its previous close at 1,116.3.
The KOSPI has risen 9.39% so far this year, and gained 2.2% in the previous 30 trading sessions.
The trading volume during the session in the KOSPI index was 1,341.70 million shares. Of the total traded issues of 906, the number of advancing shares was 483.
The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield fell by 2.7 basis points to 1.154%, while the benchmark 10-year yield fell by 4.6 basis points to 2.018%. (Reporting by Cynthia Kim; Additional reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)

Sumber : reuters.com