Seoul stocks rebounded to end over 2 pct higher Monday as investors went bargain hunting for tech heavyweights despite concerns over artificial intelligence spending. The Korean won fell against the US dollar.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index closed up 128.34 points, or 2.24 percent, to 5,859.08 after rising as high as 5,910.83.
On Friday, the index had plunged over 3 percent.
Trade volume was light at 186.4 million shares worth 14.9 trillion won ($11.1 billion). Winners outnumbered losers 651 to 229.
Foreigners and retail investors were net sellers, offloading a combined net 1.72 trillion won. Institutional investors snapped up a net 1.23 trillion won.
"The KOSPI rebounded from a crash as investors reinterpret the disappointing quarterly earnings from Intel and shift their focus to the strong fundamentals of the local semiconductor sector," said Lee Kyoung-min, an analyst from Daishin Securities.
Lee claimed the KOSPI is at a "historic discount," arguing the index could rebound on the back of robust earnings.
South Korea's October exports jumped over 90 percent from a year earlier, led by strong global demand for chips, from which outbound shipments skyrocketed 259 percent on-year.
On Friday (US time), shares of Intel fell over 28 percent on Wall Street after it announced a weaker-than-expected sales guidance for the fourth quarter, citing a slowdown in the PC market.
In Seoul, market top-caps closed mixed, with semiconductor, shipbuilding and defense shares being among the winners.
Samsung Electronics rose 1.78 percent to 229,000 won, while its rival SK hynix added 3.81 percent to 1,472,000 won.
Major shipper Hanwha Ocean jumped 9.8 percent to 54,900 won, after its parent company Hanwha Aerospace announced it has become the first South Korean company to deliver a medium landing ship to the US Navy.
Among the losers were KB Financial, which fell 1.35 percent to 153,400 won, and battery maker Samsung SDI, which retreated 0.92 percent to 538,000 won.
The local currency was quoted at 1,343.8 won against the greenback as of 3:30 p.m., down 9.5 won from the close of the previous trading session. (Yonhap)
