Samsung buyback announcement drives Kospi up 2 percent

Shares jumped more than 2 percent Monday following Samsung Electronics' significant buyback announcement, with notable gains in the Kospi.

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi closing at 2,469.07 points on Monday, up 2.16 percent, or 52.21 points, from the previous trading session. [YONHAP]

Shares jumped more than 2 percent Monday as investors scooped up Samsung Electronics' shares following the chip giant's announcement of a massive buyback program. The won rose in value against the dollar.

The Kospi gained 52.21 points, or 2.16 percent, to close at 2,469.07, marking the largest daily gain since Sept. 26, when it had jumped 2.9 percent

Trade volume was moderate at 431.2 million shares worth 10.4 trillion won ($7.5 billion), with gainers outpacing losers 614 to 282.

Institutions and individuals purchased a net 3 billion won and 5.5 billion won, respectively, while offshore investors dumped a net 72.8 billion won.

Samsung Electronics soared 5.98 percent to 56,700 won. The world's largest memory chipmaker, on Friday, announced a plan to buy back 10 trillion won of its own shares.

Due to poor-than-expected earnings and escalating uncertainty, shares of Samsung Electronics had experienced heavy losses in recent months, hitting 49,900 won Thursday, their lowest since June 2020.

Carmaker Hyundai Motor vaulted 5.34 percent to 217,000, and its affiliate, Kia, jumped 5.57 percent to 96,700 won.

Energy shares were also strong as refinery SK Innovation rose 6.04 percent to 101,900 won and the state-run Korea Gas Corp. increased 4.08 percent to 42,100 won.

Insurer Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance surged 10.48 percent to 369,000 won, and F&B firm Nongshim rose 3.99 percent to 339,000 won.

Battery maker LG Energy Solution rose 3.37 percent to 383,500 won and bio firm Celltrion jumped 4.35 percent to 172,600 won.

On the other hand, chipmaker SK hynix fell 3.65 percent to 171,700 won on news that Nvidia's new artificial intelligence chip could be delayed due to overheating issues. SK hynix is the dominant supplier of high bandwidth memory chips to Nvidia.

The local currency had been trading at 1,395.2 won against the greenback as of 3:30 p.m., down 3.6 won from the previous session.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed mixed. The yield on three-year government bonds fell 2.7 basis points to 2.915 percent, and the return on the benchmark 10-year U.S. government bonds rose 0.1 basis points to 4.440 percent.

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