Seoul shares up late Tues. morning on Samsung earnings

SEOUL, South Korean stocks traded higher late Tuesday morning backed by a strong earnings performance by top cap Samsung Electronics and overnight U.S. stock gains. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) increased 18.73 points, or 0.7 percent, to 2,706.17 as of 11:20 a.m. Samsung Electronics, the world's largest memory chip manufacturer, announced earlier in the day its first-quarter operating profit shot up more than tenfold from a year ago in the first quarter, with its chip business shifting to the black for the first time in five quarters. Overnight, Wall Street shares advanced ahead of key corporate earnings announcements and the U.S. Federal Reserve's rate decision meeting this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq also added 0.4 percent. The SandP 500 gained 0.3 percent. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics went up 1.69 percent, while smaller chip rival SK hynix gained 0.23 percent. Battery shares also fared better, with industry le ader LG Energy Solution rising 2.64 percent and smaller rival POSCO Future M increasing 0.17 percent. LG Chemical also rose 1.9 percent on the back of strong first quarter earnings. On the contrary, finance shares lost ground, with Kookmin Financial tumbling 1.44 percent and Samsung Life Insurance dropping 0.34 percent. The local currency was trading at 1,376.95 won against the U.S. dollar, up 0.05 won from the previous session's close. Source: Yonhap News Agency