South Korean stocks end the day higher

[SEOUL] South Korean shares erased early losses to close higher on Thursday, as SK Hynix's upbeat third-quarter earnings raised hopes of a recovery in the chip maker industry. 

SK Hynix, the world's second-largest memory chipmaker, said 5G-enabled smartphones should help lift the global memory market out of the doldrums next year, as its third-quarter profit beat market expectations. Shares of SK Hynix closed up 3 per cent.

The Seoul stock market's main KOSPI ended up 5.04 points, or 0.24 per cent, at 2,085.66.

The KOSPI has risen 2.19 per cent so far this year, and gained 3.8 per cent in the previous 30 trading sessions.

The trading volume during the session in the KOSPI index was 352.69 million shares and, of the total traded issues of 899, the number of advancing shares was 394.

REUTERS