Seoul: Shares rise on US payrolls jump, log best weekly gain in a month

[SEOUL] South Korean shares rose on Friday, logging their best weekly gain in four weeks, on a record surge in US payrolls, though worries of a global spike in Covid-19 infections capped further gains. The Korean won strengthened, while the benchmark bond yield rose.

The Seoul stock market's main Kospi closed up 17.04 points or 0.8 per cent at 2,152.41. For the week, the index gained 0.83 per cent.

The US economy created jobs at a record clip in June as more restaurants and bars reopened.

More than three dozen US states were seeing a rise in Covid-19 cases, according to a Reuters tally on Thursday and the nation set a new record with more than 51,000 infections in a single day as a fresh wave of the pandemic spread across the nation.

Meanwhile, South Korea reported 63 new coronavirus cases as of Thursday, most from domestic infections outside Seoul, triggering the return of tighter social distancing curbs in one city as the spectre of a second wave of the disease worried authorities.

Stocks in general gained on a relief from the US employment data, said BNK Securities' analyst Kim Sung-no, adding that a recent rally in the Chinese market also helped improve the sentiment.

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Foreigners were net buyers of 12 billion won (S$13.9 million) worth of shares on the main board.

The won closed trading 0.12 per cent higher at 1,198.6 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted flat at 1,198.6 per dollar, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was also quoted at 1,198.6.

The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by 0.3 basis point to 0.839 per cent, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 1 basis point to 1.388 per cent.

REUTERS