Seoul: Stocks close at record high on US stimulus, vaccine hopes

[SEOUL] South Korean shares posted a record closing high on Wednesday as investor hopes for more fiscal stimulus and vaccine deployment offset worries about rising domestic coronavirus cases. The Korean won strengthened, while the benchmark bond yield rose.

By 6.32am GMT, the benchmark Kospi rose 54.54 points or 2.02 per cent to close at a record high of 2,755.47.

Foreign investors are snapping up local shares, as vaccine deployment began, while some progress on a US stimulus package is also helping, said Seo Jung-hun, an analyst at Samsung Securities.

Samsung Electronics jumped 3.07 per cent to a record high.

South Korea reported 686 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday as it battles a third wave of infection that is threatening to overwhelm its healthcare system.

Britain on Tuesday became the first Western nation to begin a wide vaccination campaign, while US drugmaker Johnson & Johnson reported that it could obtain late-stage trial results for a single-dose vaccine in January, earlier than expected.

The Trump administration proposed a US$916 billion coronavirus relief package on Tuesday, after congressional Democrats shot down a suggestion for a pared-down plan from the Senate's leading Republican, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Foreigners were net buyers of 161.8 billion won (S$199.2 million) worth of shares on the main board.

The won was quoted at 1,084.8 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.06 per cent higher than its previous close at 1,085.4.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was unchanged.

The Kospi has risen 25.38 per cent so far this year, and gained 15.9 per cent in the previous 30 trading sessions.

The trading volume during the session in the Kospi index was 1.24 billion shares. Of the total traded issues of 907, the number of advancing shares was 657.

The won has gained 6.6 per cent against the dollar so far this year.

The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by 0.8 basis point to 0.967 per cent, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 1.5 basis points to 1.657 per cent.

REUTERS