Seoul shares up late Fri. morning as U.S. Fed chief hints at rate cut

South Korean stocks continued to trade higher late Friday morning following U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's hint at a rate cut this year. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index had increased 36.47 points, or 1.38 percent, to 2,684.09 as of 11:20 a.m. On Thursday (U.S. time), Powell told the Senate that the Fed is "not far" from being confident that inflation is moving toward the target level of 2 percent, which would pave the way for a rate cut. He also noted the revision may come "at some point this year" in a separate testimony made to the House of Representatives on the previous day. In Seoul, tech shares continued to gather ground, with Samsung Electronics rising 0.97 percent and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix adding 5.76 percent. Leading battery maker LG Energy Solution rose 0.75 percent, and Samsung SDI climbed 5.1 percent. Naver, which operates the country's largest search engine, added 0.53 percent, and its smaller rival Kakao advanced 1.89 percent. The local currency was trading at 1,325.6 won against the U.S. dollar, up 5.3 won from the previous session. Source: Yonhap News Agency