Kospi jumps more than four percent on sustained tech rally

Seoul stocks spiked by more than 4 percent on a tech rally following Alphabet's second-quarter earnings release. The won rose against the dollar.

The Kospi closed up 299.19 points, or 4.4 percent, to 7,096.89.

Trade volume was moderate at 392.3 million shares worth 26.7 trillion won ($18.2 billion). Winners outnumbered losers 829 to 73.

“The Kospi recovered to land at the 7,000-point level, helped by foreign investors who snapped up semiconductors,” said Kim Joo-yun, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities.

Foreigners were net buyers for the fourth consecutive day, snatching up 2.1 trillion won. Institutional investors also purchased a net 97.5 billion won. Retail investors were net sellers, off-loading a net 2.2 trillion won.

The buying spree from offshore investors was driven by anticipation memory chip demand will continue, following better-than-expected earnings results from Alphabet, Google's parent company.

The company saw its cloud revenue jump 82 percent on-year, while announcing it will further expand its capital expenditures on AI.

Tensions in the Middle East continued, which sent Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, up to $96 per barrel, adding downward pressure to the local stock market.

Samsung Electronics rose 3.65 percent to 270,000 won, while SK hynix jumped 4.85 percent to 1,919,000 won.

Defense shares also gathered ground, on profit momentum ahead of their earnings released.

Hanwha Aerospace climbed 7.52 percent to 958,000 won, and LIG Defense&Aerospace vaulted 10.34 percent to 736,000 won.

Among the decliners were financial shares, with Shinhan Financial Group inching down 0.67 percent to 103,800 won, and Hana Financial dipping 0.84 percent to 130,500 won.

The local currency rose 13.3 won from the previous session to trade at 1,466.8 won against the greenback at 3:30 p.m.

Yonhap