Seoul shares surge on Wall Street rallies

SEOUL, Oct. 14 (Yonhap) -- South Korean stocks opened more than 5 percent higher Tuesday on eased investor sentiment following overnight rallies on Wall Street, which had one of its best days in history, analysts said.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) jumped 66.19 points, or
5.14 percent, to 1,354.72 in the first 15 minutes of trading. The rebound came
after the index lost 12.55 percent last week.
Steep gains prompted bourse operator Korea Exchange (KRX) to suspend program
trading temporarily for a second straight day to cool the market just after it
opened.
Most large-cap shares gained substantial ground, with finance and tech companies
leading the upswing.
No. 2 financial service provider Shinhan Financial Group jumped 7.67 percent,
while smaller Woori Finance Holdings was up 12.34 percent. Top brokerage Mirae
Asset & Securities also got off to a strong start.
Tech bellwether Samsung Electronics advanced 4.2 percent and rival chipmaker
Hynix Semiconductor continued its rally for a second day, trading 6.59 percent
higher from a day earlier.
On Monday, U.S. markets roared back after their worst-ever performance last week,
as unprecedented global efforts to avoid a crisis helped boost shattered investor
sentiment. The Dow Jones industrial average surged 11.08 percent after losing
over 20 percent last week and the tech-dominated Nasdaq composite index also
jumped 11.81 percent.
The local currency was trading at 1,202.1 won to the U.S. dollar as of 9:15 a.m.,
up 35.9 won from Monday's close.