South Korea: Stocks gain on Sino-US trade hopes

[SEOUL] South Korean shares gained on Thursday, underpinned by hopes of a Sino-US trade deal early in 2020 and as investors refrained from selling stocks ahead of them trading ex-dividend a day later. 

Without fresh catalysts, investors stayed away from big sales of stocks as they have to hold shares till Thursday to ensure dividend payout, said Park Seok-hyun, an analyst at KTB Securities. 

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he and Chinese President Xi Jinping will have a signing ceremony to sign the first phase of the US.-China trade deal agreed to this month. 

The Seoul stock market's main KOSPI rose 7.85 points, or 0.36 per cent, to 2,197.93.

Foreigners were net sellers of US$33.07 million worth of shares on the main board.

The KOSPI has risen 7.69 per cent so far this year, and gained 2.3 per cent in the previous 30 trading sessions.

The trading volume during the session in the KOSPI index was 562.15 million shares and, of the total traded issues of 909, the number of advancing shares was 608.

REUTERS