SEOUL, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- South Korean shares made its first rebound in five sessions on Thursday as retail investors bought shares following better-than-expected corporate earnings.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 10.54 points, or 0.55 percent, to close at 1,924.50. Trading volume stood at 430.28 million shares worth 4.77 trillion won (4. 33 billion U.S. dollars).
Corporate earnings from major U.S. companies were positive, but the KOSPI started lower, fluctuating in and out of negative terrain during the trading.
Following the better-than-expected earnings results from South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor, the KOSPI managed to land in positive terrain, boosting expectations for positive earnings from other companies.
Hyundai's third-quarter operating profit reached 2.06 trillion won (1.87 billion U.S. dollars). The profit was down 17.8 percent from three months before due to production disruption caused by partial strikes in July and August, but the result was better than market anticipated.
Auto shares gained ground. Hyundai Motor advanced 3.9 percent to 226,500 won, and its affiliate Kia Motors jumped 5.8 percent to 66,000 won on expectations for the third-quarter earnings scheduled to be released on Friday. The nation's largest auto parts maker Hyundai Mobis gained 2.7 percent to 286,500 won.
Tech shares ended bullish. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics rose 1.7 percent to 1,322,000 won ahead of Friday's earnings announcement. Samsung unveiled the fresh record quarterly operating performance earlier this month at the preliminary earnings report.
Memory chip giant SK Hynix rose 1.2 percent on expectations for positive fourth-quarter earnings, and Samsung Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering rebounded on views that shipbuilding shares were undervalued.
Retail investors led the market rebound by purchasing a net 69. 3 billion won worth of stocks, but local institutions sold a net 78.3 billion won worth of stocks. Foreign investors maintained their selling streak for fifth straight sessions due to the continued ascent of local currency against the dollar, but their selling volume stood merely at 4.6 billion won.
The local currency finished at 1,098.2 won against the greenback, up 5.4 won from Wednesday's close. The won-dollar exchange rate fell below the 1,100 level for the first time since Sept. 9, 2011.
Experts expected the appreciating trend of the local currency to continue considering the persistent current account surplus and an increase in foreign fund inflow into the country. South Korea logged a current account surplus of 2.36 billion dollars in August, keeping its surplus trend for seven straight months. Global rating appraisers Moody's, Fitch and Standard & Poor's all revised up the country's sovereign rating recently, boosting foreign fund inflow into the nation.
Bond prices ended flat. The yield on the liquid three-year treasury notes finished unchanged at 2.81 percent, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds closed steady at 2.89 percent.
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