South Korean stocks finished 0.8 percent higher Monday on optimism that European policymakers will take action to ease the debt crisis, analysts said. The local currency rose against the U.S. dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 14.63 points to close at 1,843.79. Trading volume was moderate at 333.1 million shares worth 3.8 trillion won ($3.3 billion) with gainers outpacing losers 425 to 367.

"Investors are cheered by the highly anticipated moves of European leaders and are optimistic that the eurozone crisis will be tackled to some extent this time," said Kwak Jung-bo, an analyst from Samsung Securities Co.

Leaders of Germany, France and Italy had telephone meetings over the weekend to support the recent remark by European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi to combat the region's deepening sovereign debt crisis.

However, the gains were limited because the market is set to take a wait-and-see stance before meetings of the ECB and the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee slated for later this week, noted Kwak.

"The U.S. and European policymakers should come up with more practical and fundamental measures to solve the debt problems.

Otherwise, the market will lose momentum again and the global economy will fall into a deeper recession," he said.

Foreigners lent support to the KOSPI rally, scooping up a net 445.9 billion won worth of local shares.

Most shares gained ground, led by blue chips, banks and refiners.

Tech giant Samsung Electronics jumped 3.41 percent to 1,275,000 won on the back of better-than-expected quarterly earnings released last week. World's second-largest memory chipmaker SK hynix added 0.71 percent to 21,300 won.

Banks also finished bullish, with Hana Financial Group rising 2.33 percent to 35,200 won and KB Financial Group climbing 2.46 percent to 35,350 won.

Leading refinery SK Innovation gained 1.67 percent to finish at 152,500 won and No. 3 player S-Oil added 0.21 percent to 95,500 won.

However, leading fixed-line carrier KT tumbled 3.03 percent to close at 32,000 won as information of its 8.7 million subscribers was found to be hacked over the weekend.

The local currency ended at 1,137.6 won against the greenback, up 0.7 won from Friday's close, thanks to the KOSPI rise and recovering appetite for risky assets, dealers said.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed slightly higher. The yield on three-year Treasuries fell 0.01 percentage point to 2.85 percent and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds dropped 0.01 percentage point to 2.96 percent. (Yonhap News)