South Korean shares slump 7 percent on renewed selling in chipmakers, c.bank hikes rates

Round-up of South Korean financial markets:

** South Korean shares slid 7 percent on Thursday on renewed selling in chipmakers' stocks, while its central bank delivered a highly anticipated interest rate hike for the first time in over three years to stabilise the currency.

** The benchmark KOSPI was down 502.44 points, or 6.90 percent, at 6,781.97 as of 0113 GMT, more than erasing the previous session's gains. Sharp declines also triggered a "sidecar" trading curb, temporarily halting program trading.

** The seven-member monetary policy board at the Bank of Korea voted to raise the seven-day repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 2.75 percent to shore up the won which has weakened around 3 percent against the US dollar this year.

** The rate hike, predicted by all but one of 37 economists surveyed in a Reuters poll, aligns the BOK closely with regional neighbour the Bank of Japan, which recently raised its own benchmark rate to a 31-year high.

** The won was last quoted at 1,487.6 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform slightly below the nine-week high of 1,483.9 a dollar touched earlier.

** Among equities, the world's leading AI chipmaker SK Hynix tumbled as much as 11.7 percent, while rival Samsung Electronics fell 8.9 percent. Battery maker LG Energy Solution climbed 1.79 percent.

** SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics make up just over half of the benchmark KOSPI index.

** Hyundai Motor and sister automaker Kia Corp were down 2.30 percent and up 0.69 percent, respectively. Steelmaker POSCO Holdings shed 0.48 percent, while drugmaker Samsung BioLogics fell 0.51 percent.

** Of the 904 issues traded, 433 shares advanced, while 429 declined. Foreigners were net sellers of shares worth 776.8 billion won.

** Despite recent losses and volatility, the KOSPI has risen more than 62 percent so far this year, making it one of the best-performing indexes globally.

** In money and debt markets, September futures on three-year Treasury bonds gained 0.05 point to 102.86.

** The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield fell by 0.1 basis points to 3.858 percent, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 1.9 basis points to 4.332 percent.

Reuters

𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽 ↓