South Korea’s main stock market chalked up a fresh historic high Friday, a week after it hit 2,355.3 the previous Friday, on strong foreign buying riding on world rallies.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index closed at 2,371.72 Friday, up 1.16 percent from previous trading day.
Opening strong at 2,353.77, up 0.39 percent from Thursday’s closing at 2,344.61, the Kospi topped 2,370 for the first time at around 2:20 p.m.
The index hit intraday high at 2,372.65 at around 3 p.m.
The main bourse remained dormant this week until Thursday due to sluggish foreign investors’ buying, after setting new highs throughout the previous week.
(Yonhap)
Foreign investors’ return Friday led the rallies. Foreigners bought shares worth 447.6 billion won ($398.9 million), while institutional investors and individual investors sold 251.1 billion won and 240.8 billion won in total, respectively.
The second-tier Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations enjoyed a record run for 2017 for four consecutive days. The Kosdaq closed at 658.78 Friday, the highest since mid-October 2016, up 0.76 percent from Thursday.
The total market cap of the Kosdaq-listed firms also hit record-high Friday. It stood at reached 217.8 trillion won, beating the previous high at 216.7 trillion won recorded on Aug. 10, 2016, when the index came to 707.46.
On the first-tier market, trade volume came to 392.8 million shares worth 6 trillion won. Gainers outnumbered losers 512 to 292, with two firms hitting the price ceiling.
Shares of Information technology products maker led the Kospi rally. Market juggernaut Samsung Electronics climbed up 2.86 percent, closing at 2,298.000 won, while LG Electronics jumped 6.52 percent to close at 86,600 won.
Mobile game maker Netmarble Games also buoyed the market. Netmarble Games, which made the biggest debut in the Kospi market in seven years, surged 4.62 percent from Thursday and closed at 158,500 won Friday.
The buoyance came in line with world rallies. The S&P 500 finished 0.8 percent higher at 2,430.06, while Nasdaq rose 0.8 percent and closed at 6,246.83. Tokyo’s Nikkei jumped 1.6 percent to close record-high at 20,177.28 in two years.
Local currency weakened by a small margin. It was trading at 1122.1 won against the dollar Friday at around 3:30 p.m., down 0.01 percent from Thursday.
By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)