Seoul shares closed one percent higher on Thursday, picking up on a late surge of bargain-hunting focused on technology stocks and as shares in Hyundai Motor rose on news about robust car price rises and sales.
"Players took a wait-and-see stance for most of the session because lingering uncertainties are making the market direction unclear," said Hawing Chang-Jung, an analyst at LG Investment and Securities.
"But healthy gains in Taiwan and hefty program-buying drove up the index late on." Trade was thin, as the market was wary about possible interest rate rises in China and the United States, participants said.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed up 1.03 percent to 760.09 points. Taiwan's TAIEX share indexes rose 1.87 percent.