(RTTNews) - The South Korean stock market is trading in positive territory on Friday, but with far less gains than most of its peers in the Asia-Pacific region. The strong rally on Wall Street overnight on buoyant GDP growth has contributed significantly to the firm trend.

The benchmark KOSPI index dropped down to 1,588 after an early surge to 1,605, but has edged up subsequently to 1,598, up 12.1 points, or 0.76%, over its previous close.

Market heavyweight Samsung Electronics is trading firm with a 1.6% gain following the company reporting its best ever quarterly net profit on a resurgent memory sector.

Samsung’s July-September net profit rose to 3.72 trillion won, or US$3.14 billion, from 1.22 trillion won a year ago. It was Samsung’s best-ever quarterly result, exceeding its previous record net profit of 3.14 trillion won in the first quarter of 2004. Consolidated quarterly operating profit was 4.23 trillion won, better than a forecast for 3.92 trillion won and well above last year’s 2.52 trillion won.
The company has also issued a strong forecast for 2010.

Among other tech stocks, LG Display LCD is up with a modest gain, while LG Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor are trading modestly lower.

In the automobile space, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motor are down 3.5% and 1.6% respectively, while Ssangyong Motor is gaining about 3.3%.

Bank stocks are trading mixed. Korea Exchange Bank is up 2.2% and Woori Finance is trading modestly higher, while Shinhan Financial and KB Financial are trading lower by 0.8% and 1.8% respectively.

Steel stocks POSCO and Hyundai Steel are trading stronger by 3% and 2% respectively. Among oil stocks, SK Holdings is up 1.2%. S-Oil and KEPCO are exhibiting weakness.

Among shipping stocks, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding are gaining 3.5%-4.2%, while bulk carrier STX Pan Ocean is trading 1.3% up.

Airliners Korea Airlines and Asiana Airlines are gaining over 2.5% each, while telecom stocks are exhibiting a mixed trend.

Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Indonesia, Japan and Singapore are up sharply. New Zealand and Taiwan are also trading firm. Markets across the region had ended notably lower on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks rallied sharply on Thursday with buoyant third-quarter GDP growth generating risk appetite and driving traders to go on a buying spree. The major averages all finished firmly in positive territory, partly offsetting their recent losses.

The Commerce Department said its advance estimate showed that GDP increased at an annual rate of 3.5% in the third quarter compared to a 0.7% decrease in the second quarter. Economists had been expecting GDP to increase by 3.2%.

The Dow closed up nearly 200 points, or 2.1%, 9,962.6, the Nasdaq advanced by about 38 points, or 1.8%, to 2,097.6 and the S&P 500 moved up 23.5 points, or 2.3%, to 1,066.1.

Major European markets closed notably higher on Thursday. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 gained 1.1%, while the French CAC 40 index and the German DAX index gained 1.4% and 1.7% respectively.

Crude oil surged on Thursday but failed to hold above US$80 per barrel. Prices were boosted by a better-than-forecast gross domestic product report and some mixed jobs data. Light sweet crude oil for December delivery rose to US$79.87 per barrel, up US$2.41 on the session.

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Posted in Categories: Australia, Eurozone, Japan, New Zealand, Releases, Stocks, USA.

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