Seoul shares spike nearly 3% on US rate cut hopes

Seoul shares ended nearly 3 percent higher Thursday as tech stocks advanced, with hopes for additional rate cuts by the Federal Reserve lifting investor sentiment. The Korean won rose against the US dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index jumped 2.9 percent, or 75.25 points, to 2,571.57.

Trading volume was moderate at 317.46 million shares worth 11.4 trillion won ($8.6 billion), with gainers far outnumbering winners 747 to 140.

Overnight, US stocks ended mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.7 percent to 41,914.75, but the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.04 percent to 18,082.21.

On Wednesday, a Federal Reserve official said it will be appropriate for the US central bank to make additional rate cuts if inflation continues to ease as expected.

Earlier this month, the Fed reduced its key rate by a half percentage point, putting an end to its post-pandemic tightening cycle.

Revived foreign appetite for risky assets gave a boost to the local stock market after Micron Technology forecast robust first-quarter revenue, betting on strong demand for its high bandwidth memory chips used by the AI industry, analysts said.

Institutions and foreigners bought a combined 1.28 trillion won worth of stocks, offsetting individuals' stock selling valued at 1.25 trillion won.

In Seoul, tech stocks were lead gainers.

Market bellwether Samsung Electronics Co. jumped 4 percent to 64,700 won, No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix Inc. surged 9.4 percent to 180,900 won, top carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. climbed 3 percent to 259,000 won, and state utility Korea Electric Power Corp. was up 2.6 percent to 20,350 won.

SK hynix shares surged on news it began volume production of a 12-layer memory chip known as HBM3E, a more advanced version of the current chips for artificial intelligence.

Among decliners, leading refiner SK Innovation Co. fell 0.6 percent to 120,600 won, the country's sole aircraft manufacturer Korea Aerospace Industries Co. declined 1.9 percent to 53,200 won, and leading cosmetics firm Amorepacific Corp. was down 2.6 percent to 146,800 won.

The local currency was trading at 1,328.35 won against the greenback as of 3:30 p.m., up 3.8 won from the previous session's close. (Yonhap)