Korean shares soar 1.34% Friday following overnight tech boost on Wall Street

Shares soared more than 1.3 percent Friday as big-cap chip shares rallied following an overnight tech boost on Wall Street.

Screens in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul show the Kospi closing at 2,472.74 points on Friday, up 1.34 percent, or 32.70 points, from the previous trading session. [NEWS1]

Shares soared more than 1.3 percent Friday as big-cap chip shares rallied following an overnight tech boost on Wall Street.

The local currency edged up in value against the dollar.

The Kospi jumped 32.70 points, or 1.34 percent, to 2,472.74.

Trading volume was slim at 499.2 million shares worth 9 trillion won ($6.7 billion), with winners outpacing losers 518 to 345.

Foreigners turned to net buyers with a net purchase of 683.2 billion won worth of shares, while individual investors and institutions unloaded shares worth 459.9 billion won and 231.3 billion won, respectively.

Overnight, all three major U.S. indexes gained ground, led by the strong performance of tech giants, such as Apple and TSMC. Apple gained 3.3 percent as the Bank of America upgraded its rating on the company to "buy" from "neutral," and TSMC spiked 9.8 percent on stronger-than-expected fourth quarter earnings.

In Seoul, chip shares also boosted the Kospi.

Samsung Electronics shot up 4.18 percent to 74,700 won, and SK hynix soared 3.74 percent to 141,300 won.

Bio and auto shares were also strong.

Samsung Biologics jumped 2.67 percent to 770,000 won, and Celltrion gained 0.74 percent to 176,000 won.

Hyundai Motor rose 0.83 percent to 181,700 won, and Kia went up 0.34 percent to 87,600 won.

Battery shares lost ground.

LG Energy Solution declined 1.79 percent to 383,500 won, Samsung SDI lost 0.66 percent to 374,000 won, and Posco Future M plunged 2.11 percent to 278,500 won.

Posco Holdings plummeted 1.78 percent to 414,500 won, and LG Chem also fell 1.82 percent to 404,500 won.

The local currency ended at 1,339.00 won against the dollar, down 0.7 won from the previous session's close.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed lower. The yield on three-year government bonds rose 2.2 points to 3.308 percent, and the return on the benchmark U.S. 10-year government bonds gained 3.7 points to 4.144 percent.

BY KIM JU-YEON, YONHAP [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]