According to Yonhap, South Korean stocks opened sharply higher Friday, with the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) jumping 727.42 points, or 13%, to 6,320.98 as of 9:15 a.m. on strong gains in semiconductor shares after an overnight rally on Wall Street, led by Microsoft’s stronger-than-expected second-quarter report. The bourse operator activated a buy-side sidecar for the KOSPI at 9:06 a.m., suspending five-minute program trading for KOSPI-listed shares after the market’s steep declines in the previous three sessions.
Samsung Electronics rose 20.77%, SK hynix gained 22.69%, Hanmi Semiconductor advanced 23.21% and Samsung Electro-Mechanics climbed 29.81%. The Korean won was trading at 1,428.65 per U.S. dollar at 9:15 a.m., down 3.95 won from the previous stock-market close.