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An electronic board showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index at a dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on Tuesday. (Yonhap) |
Seoul shares ended higher Tuesday, tracking gains on Wall Street, with investors awaiting economic data over the next few days for clues on the outlook for global central banks' monetary policies. The Korean won rose against the US dollar.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) rose 8.75 points, or 0.34 percent, to close at 2,552.16. Trading volume was moderate at 434.48 million shares worth 8.15 trillion won ($6.2 billion), with gainers outnumbering decliners 622 to 248.
Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.62 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.84 percent.
Investors are keeping an eye on economic data, including US GDP and unemployment and the China manufacturing PMI, to be released this week, as they will indicate whether economic activity is slowing enough to keep further rate hikes at bay or not, analysts said.
Institutions and individuals bought a combined 112 billion won worth of stocks, offsetting foreign selling valued at 160 billion won.
In Seoul, most large-cap stocks were mixed.
No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix Inc. rose 2.3 percent to 118,600 won, top carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. climbed 0.7 percent to 186,700 won, national flag carrier Korean Air Co. gained 0.2 percent to 23,200 won, and state utility Korea Electric Power Corp. was up 0.2 percent to 18,060 won.
Among decliners, leading cosmetics firm Amorepacific Corp. fell 0.2 percent to 131,200 won, leading battery maker LG Energy Solution declined 0.2 percent to 552,000 won, and leading refiner SK Innovation Co. was down 0.7 percent to 176,000 won.
The local currency closed at 1,321.90 won against the US dollar, up 1.5 won from the previous session's close. (Yonhap)
