Seoul shares rose 2.4 percent on Friday to post their ninth consecutive winning week, as an upbeat outlook by US bellwether Intel Corp delivered a much-needed boost to struggling tech issues such as Samsung Electronics. A retreat in oil prices also helped ease concerns about the impact of higher energy costs on corporate profits. Oil fell 1.4 percent to $52.80 a barrel in Asia after slipping 2 percent in New York trade.
The benchmark index rose 2.42 percent, its biggest percentage gain in four months, to end at a session high of 1,022.79, its highest close since ending at 1,059.04 on January 4, 2000.
The index rose almost 1 percent for the week. "Intel's upgrade revived expectations for a bull market and it helped soothe investors' worries about the tech sector," said Cho Se-hun, a fund manager at Prudential Investment Trust & Management.
"Buying interest was quite heavy as investors took their cue from a strong futures market, which is a leading index for the direction of the spot market." Shares in Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the world's top memory chip maker, climbed 3.9 percent to end at 519,000 won after Intel, the world's top chip maker, raised its first-quarter revenue forecast above a forecast by Wall Street analysts.
LG.Philips LCD Co Ltd, the world's No 2 flat-screen maker, jumped 7.2 percent to end at 43,200 won and Hynix Semiconductor Inc, the world's No 2 memory chipmaker, added 3.7 percent to 14,150 won.
A source close to LG.Philips told Reuters on Thursday the firm planned to raise prices for some liquid crystal displays.
Tech shares had been in the doldrums recently on growing worries over falling prices of memory chips and flat screens. Turnover jumped to 699 million shares valued at 3.9 trillion won, versus 591 million on Thursday, boosting expectations for fatter commission income for brokerage houses.
Shares in Samsung Securities Co, the country's top brokerage firm, rose 5.3 percent to 28,800 won and Daishin Securities added 3.01 percent to 17,100 won. Shares in POSCO Co Ltd, the world's fifth-largest steelmaker, rose as high as 2.6 percent before closing up 1.9 percent at 212,500 won, helped by its plan to raise domestic steel prices by 6-10 percent to offset a rise in raw material costs. But SK Corp ended 1.3 percent lower at 62,800 won after the country's top oil refiner voted to retain its fraud-convicted chief executive Chey Tae-won at an annual shareholder meeting. "It's under pressure as disappointed investors are offloading stocks while some are even more worried about a possible stake sale by Sovereign," said Lee Hee-chul, an analyst at CJ Investment & Securities.
Dubai-based Sovereign Asset Management Ltd, the second-largest shareholder in SK with a near 15 percent stake, said the decision to retain Chey Tae-won would deal a further blow to the relatively low valuation of South Korean shares.
The June KOSPI 200 futures index rose 2.45 points to 131.90 and the underlying KOSPI 200 spot index gained 3.21 points to 131.97. The junior Kosdaq market rose 1.67 percent to 490.74.
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