Kospi ends sharply higher Thursday on Nvidia earnings

Stocks ended higher Thursday, led by tech gains tracking U.S. chipmaker Nvidia's earnings surprise. Investors now await the U.S. Federal Reserve chief's speech for hints on the direction of its rate policy. The won sharply rose against the dollar.

Screens in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul show the Kospi closing at 2,537.68 points on Thursday, up 1.28 percent, or 32.18 points, from the previous trading session. [NEWS1]

Stocks ended higher Thursday, led by tech gains tracking U.S. chipmaker Nvidia's earnings surprise. Investors now await the U.S. Federal Reserve chief's speech for hints on the direction of its rate policy.

The benchmark Kospi rose 32.18 points, or 1.28 percent, to close at 2,537.68. The won sharply rose against the dollar.

Trading volume was moderate at 433.34 million shares worth 9.94 trillion won ($7.5 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 538 to 321. Institutions and foreigners bought a combined 406 billion won worth of stocks, exceeding individuals' stock selling valued at 398 billion won.

U.S. stocks finished higher overnight, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 0.5 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advancing 1.6 percent.

Nvidia's better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter gave a boost to tech stocks, with its revenue jumping 171 percent on-year driven by the artificial intelligence craze, analysts said.

Investors expect Fed Chair Jerome Powell to outline the U.S. central bank's future policy steps Friday at the annual Jackson Hole Economic Symposium meeting.

In Seoul, major tech, auto and energy stocks drove the Kospi up.

Samsung Electronics rose 1.6 percent to 68,200 won and SK hynix soared 4.2 percent to 120,900 won.

LG Energy Solution jumped 1.9 percent to 535,000 won and Samsung SDI gained 1.4 percent to 594,000 won.

Posco Holdings advanced 5.1 percent to 579,000 won and Posco Future M spiked 11.1 percent to 469,000 won.

Naver surged 6.3 percent to 229,000 won on expectations for its new large-scale AI service HyperClova X released earlier in the day.

Carmakers were mixed, with Hyundai Motor losing 0.6 percent to 186,400 won and Kia climbing 0.1 percent to 78,800 won.

Samsung Biologics remained flat at 763,000 won and Celltrion grew 2.2 percent to 144,600 won.

The local currency closed at 1,322.60 won against the U.S. dollar, up 17.1 won from the previous session's close.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed higher. The yield on three-year government bonds shed 0.5 basis points to 3.8 percent, and the yield on the benchmark 10-year government bonds dropped 13.5 basis points to 4.2 percent.

BY SOHN DONG-JOO, YONHAP [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]