Round-up of South Korean financial markets:
** South Korean shares rallied the most in nearly five weeks on Wednesday, boosted by a 13 percent surge in leading AI memory chipmaker SK Hynix after softer-than-expected US inflation data lifted US tech stocks.
** Upbeat analyst views on the outlook for AI memory demand also drove chip stocks higher, with Samsung Electronics advancing 8 percent and chip equipment maker Hanmi Semiconductor soaring more than 29 percent.
** The chip rally, led by bellwethers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, propelled the benchmark KOSPI index more than 7 percent higher in its sharpest one-day gain since mid-June.
** During the session, gains triggered a "sidecar" trading curb, temporarily halting program trading.
** Overnight, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq advanced as solid big bank results and a cooler-than-expected inflation report boosted risk appetite. The Philadelphia SE semiconductor index added 2.5 percent.
** The rebound in KOSPI followed weeks of volatility in chip stocks as investors grappled with concerns about an earnings slowdown, spending by hyperscalers, and capacity expansion plans that could eventually ease memory supply issues.
** A rebalancing of foreign investors' positioning and the ballooning popularity of leveraged single-stock ETFs are also amplifying wild swings in chip stocks and the KOSPI, which has shed about 20 percent since its record closing high on June 22.
** "The recent share price pullback is more of a technical correction driven by market-wide profit-taking, and therefore represents a potential buying opportunity," Citi said in a note, adding it "remained constructive on the Korean memory space".
** Barclays initiated research coverage on SK Hynix's newly listed depository receipts on Nasdaq with an "overweight" rating and a US$330 price target. The depository receipts closed 27 percent higher at US$193.92 overnight.
** Elsewhere, Hyundai Motor and sister automaker Kia Corp were up 2.94 percent and up 4.08 percent, respectively. Steelmaker POSCO Holdings added 3.95 percent, while drugmaker Samsung BioLogics rose 3.29 percent.
** The won was quoted at 1,491.0 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform as of 0315 GMT, after touching a two-month high of 1,484.5 per dollar earlier in the day.
Reuters
