The South Korean stock market saw a resurgence on Thursday, rebounding after a brief pause in a six-day winning streak that had previously added nearly 120 points or 4.6 percent. The KOSPI index now stands just above the 2,670-point mark and is poised to potentially extend these gains into Friday.
The global economic sentiment appears positive, driven by continued optimism about interest rate trends. European and U.S. markets have shown upward movement, suggesting that Asian markets are likely to follow, although some profit-taking could emerge as the day progresses.
On Thursday, the KOSPI ended significantly higher, bolstered by robust performance across financial shares, technology stocks, and industrial sectors.
Specifically, the index surged by 75.25 points or 2.90 percent to close at a daily high of 2,671.57, with an intraday low of 2,630.30. Trading volume reached 317.46 million shares, valued at 11.4 trillion won. The market breadth favored the bulls with 747 advancers and 140 decliners.
Among the prominent gainers:
- Shinhan Financial soared 6.54 percent,
- KB Financial spiked 3.97 percent,
- Hana Financial surged 5.55 percent,
- Samsung Electronics increased by 4.02 percent,
- Samsung SDI up by 1.57 percent,
- LG Electronics gained 2.18 percent,
- SK Hynix skyrocketed 9.44 percent,
- Naver climbed 2.83 percent,
- LG Chem advanced 2.73 percent,
- Lotte Chemical rallied 3.39 percent.
Conversely:
- S-Oil fell by 0.32 percent,
- SK Innovation decreased by 0.58 percent.
Other notable movements:
- POSCO strengthened 2.13 percent,
- SK Telecom improved 1.58 percent,
- KEPCO accelerated 2.57 percent,
- Hyundai Mobis gathered 1.79 percent,
- Hyundai Motor jumped 2.98 percent,
- Kia Motors added 2.04 percent.
Optimism extended from Wall Street, where major indices opened higher on Thursday and maintained a positive trajectory throughout the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 260.36 points or 0.62 percent to close at 42,175.11. The NASDAQ Composite jumped 108.09 points or 0.60 percent to finish at 18,190.29, while the S&P 500 added 23.11 points or 0.40 percent to end at 5,745.37.
The tech sector led the U.S. market rally, with chipmaker Micron (MU) notably contributing to the gains following the release of better-than-expected quarterly results and optimistic fiscal revenue guidance.
Additionally, U.S. stocks benefited from encouraging economic data. The Labor Department reported an unexpected decrease in first-time jobless claims last week, while the Commerce Department noted that new orders for durable goods were almost unchanged in August.
Oil prices declined sharply on Thursday due to concerns over excess supply. Reports indicated that OPEC plans to reintroduce 2.2 million barrels per day of production cuts into the market. Consequently, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures for November dropped $2.02 or 2.9 percent, closing at $67.67 per barrel.
