SEOUL: Seoul shares rose to a near one-month high by midday on Tuesday as market heavyweight Samsung Electronics bolstered the main board, while automakers weighed on the bourse.
The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) was up 0.5 per cent at 1,988.44 points as of 0239 GMT, after gaining as much as almost 1 per cent to 1,998.02 points, the highest intraday level since August 11. Losers slightly outnumbered gainers by 105 to 100. “The KOSPI rises in a choppy trade among sectors, and it tries breaking through 2,000 level, but it’s still hard to do that,” said Lee Kyung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities.
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, which makes up 13 per cent of the main bourse’s market value, rose as much as 3.6 per cent to a two-week high ahead of its earnings guidance expected to be released early on Wednesday.
John Park, an analyst at Daishin Securities, said the tech giant rose on speculation that the company may announce plans to return more of its profits to shareholders, possibly through a share buyback.
