Seoul shares rose for a second straight session on Wednesday, with the stronger won fuelling foreign buying into technology and banking issues such as Samsung Electronics and KB Financial Group. Foreign investors snapped up a net 371 billion won ($323 million) worth of stocks on the main board according to preliminary data, their largest single-day purchase in a month.
Expectations about the won's upward trend drove foreign buying into South Korean stocks and bonds, while local institutions curtailed stock holdings, questioning whether companies could sustain solid earnings amid Europe's debt woes. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index closed up 1.65 percent at 1,627.43 points after climbing to as high as 1,628.31, its highest in nearly three weeks.
Shares in Samsung Electronics, the world's top maker of memory chips and LCD screens, advanced 3.0 percent to 779,000 won, after strong US manufacturing data brightened the outlook for South Korea's No 2 export market.
KB Financial Group, the parent company of top domestic bank Kookmin, jumped 5.0 percent. It has been recovering from a six-month low hit early last week. Local institutions bought a net 4.4 billion won worth of shares, whereas individual investors cashed in a net 376 billion won of stocks. Trade volume on the main exchange increased to 377.7 million shares worth 4.0 trillion won from Tuesday's 271 million shares worth 2.7 trillion won. The junior Kosdaq market rose 1.22 percent to close at 515.16.