Tech, secondary batteries boost stock rally as won gains ground

Stocks soared 2 percent Wednesday as tech, secondary batteries and other market heavyweights rallied following overnight gains on Wall Street. The Korean won rose against the U.S. dollar.

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi closing at 2,675.75 points on Wednesday, up 2.01 percent, or 52.73 points, from the previous trading session. [YONHAP]

Stocks soared 2 percent Wednesday as tech, secondary batteries and other market heavyweights rallied following overnight gains on Wall Street. The won rose against the dollar.

The Kospi climbed 52.73 points, or 2.01 percent, to 2,675.75. Trade volume was moderate at 319 million shares worth 10.06 trillion won ($7.34 billion). Winners outpaced losers 610 to 270.

Institutions and foreign investors combined bought a net 855.3 billion won, while retail investors unloaded a net 867 billion won in shares.

Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 1.2 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.59 percent. The Dow Jones gained 0.69 percent as tech heavyweights lifted the broader U.S. stock market.

Han Ji-young, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities, said Seoul shares advanced on "continued expectations of interest rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve following the latest U.S. purchasing managers' index data, as well as strong performances from artificial intelligence-related stocks, such as Nvidia."

In Seoul, most blue chips advanced. Samsung Electronics surged 4.11 percent to 78,600 won, and SK hynix also surged 5.15 percent to 179,800 won.

Battery shares and energy shares also gained traction. LG Energy Solution jumped 4.05 percent to 385,000 won, and Posco Future M gained 8 percent to 297,000 won. SK Innovation added 1.48 percent to reach 110,000 won.

Auto shares gained ground, with Hyundai Motor rising 1.2 percent to 252,500 won and Kia gaining 0.26 percent to 116,200 won.

IT firms closed bullish, with Naver rising 2 percent to 183,700 won and Kakao increasing 1.26 percent to 48,100 won.

Financial shares, however, lost ground following their strong gains in the past few sessions. KB Financial Group slipped 1.85 percent to 68,900 won, and Hana Financial also fell 1.91 percent to 56,500 won.

The local currency ended at 1,369.2 won against the greenback, down 9.1 won from the previous session's close.

The Kosdaq gained 16.79 points, or 1.99 percent, to close at 862.23.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed mixed. The yield on three-year government bonds gained 2.1 basis points to 3.51 percent, and the return on benchmark U.S. 10-year government bonds fell 0.8 basis points to 4.602 percent.

BY CHOI HAE-JIN, YONHAP [choi.haejin@joongang.co.kr]