Tech Shares
SEOUL, Feb. 11 (Yonhap) – South Korea stocks traded slightly higher late Tuesday morning as foreign investors scooped up tech shares.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 0.26 percent, or 5.02 points, to 1928.32 as of 11:20 am.
Market leader Samsung Electronics rose 1.25 percent and top chipmaker SK Hynix gained 0.51 percent.
Auto shares were in negative terrain. The country’s largest automaker, Hyundai Motor, lost 0.43 percent, and its sister company Kia Motors fell 0.93 percent.
Daewoo Engineering & Construction had fallen sharply by nearly 9 percent in early morning trading after news that the builder has been under investigation on suspicions that it has cooked its books to brush off a loss of 1.7 trillion won (US$1.5 billion). But it rose 1.22 percent as institutional buying tapered its earlier fall.
South Korean won was changing hands at 1,072.95 won per dollar, down 1.75 won from Monday’s close.