Seoul: Shares end at record high, see biggest annual gain since 2009

[SEOUL] South Korean shares closed at a record high on Wednesday, driven by Samsung Electronics, other heavyweights and hopes for an economic recovery, while it also posted gains of more than 30 per cent for 2020, its biggest annual jump in 11 years.

The country's financial markets will be closed from Thursday and will reopen on Jan 4.

The benchmark Kospi closed up 52.96 points or 1.88 per cent at a record high of 2,873.47. The index rose for a fifth straight day.

Chip giant Samsung Electronics ended 3.5 per cent higher to its record high, while its peer SK Hynix rose 2.2 per cent.

Other heavyweights Naver, Samsung SDI and LG Chem also rose 3.4 per cent, 4.5 per cent and 1.4 per cent respectively.

The nation's trade data is due on Jan 1, which could provide additional signals that the economy is on recovery track.

For 2020, the index surged 30.8 per cent, the largest gain since 2009, while it soared 23.4 per cent in the final quarter, its biggest quarterly jump in over 17 years.

Towing such gains were retail investors as they gobbled up 47.5 trillion won (S$57.96 billion) for the year, Korean Exchange data showed.

Foreigners were net buyers of 250.3 billion won worth of shares on the main board, but they sold around net 24.6 trillion in 2020, the data showed.

The won ended at 1,086.3 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, up 0.53 per cent.

For the year, the won gained 6.5 per cent against the dollar, while it rose 7.7 per cent in the fourth quarter, marking the fastest quarterly gain since the first quarter of 2017.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,085.8, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,085.5.

The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by 1 basis point to 0.982 per cent.

REUTERS