Stocks Exceeds 800, Closing at 796 Won

Stocks surged yesterday, exceeding 800.00 won.

The market opened with a rush of foreign investors and the synthetic stock soared up 10.70 points from the previous day to 802.66 won.

However, by the end of the day, prices closed at 796.06 won, up 4.10 points from Monday, the highest figure this year.

This is the first time in 16 months, since July 9, 2002 (801.99 won), that the stock price exceeded 800.00 won at any one stage of the day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq recorded a consecutive high in the market the past three days, and with this, recoveries in Korean exports in October led to the rise in local stock prices.

Foreign investors, in particular, were a momentum to the rise with a 341.8 billion won spent solely in purchasing shares. Meanwhile, individual investors and local firms sold shares of 87.3 billion won and 244.3 billion won, respectively.

Samsung Electronics went up as high as 484,500 won and ended at an unprecedented 479,000 won.

KTB Network president In-hwan Jang said, “It can be predicted that foreign investment will continue to stay at a high rate until the first half of next year, from which we can expect further increase and the synthetic share price to climb to over 800.”

Kang-Woon Lee kwoon90@donga.com