koreatimes62d ago
Seoul stocks jumped nearly 7 percent to reach a record high Tuesday, brushing off the previous session’s steep fall caused by the uncertainty involving the nomination of a hawkish figure as the new chair of the Federal Reserve. According to the Korea Exchange (KRX), the benchmark KOSPI closed at 5,288.08 points, up 6.84 percent from the previous trading day. The tech-heavy Kosdaq closed at 1,144.33 points, up 4.19 percent. The rebound was driven largely by institutional and foreign buying of the large-cap semiconductor shares. Samsung Electronics and SK hynix shares closed at 167,500 won ($116) and 907,000 won, up 11.37 percent and 9.28 percent from the previous session, respectively. Soon after the KOSPI opened at 5,114.81 points, up 3.34 percent from the previous session, the bourse operator activated a KOSPI buy-side circuit breaker, otherwise known as a “sidecar,” at 9:26 a.m. The measure came after the KOSPI 200 Futures jumped more than 5 percent. The five-minute measure was the first activation since April 10 last year. This was a dramatic shift from the previous session when