By Yeawon Choi
SEOUL, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Seoul shares rose more than 2
percent on Wednesday morning as sentiment improved following
rallies in Europe and on Wall Street overnight, and on hopes for
additional stimulus from China following lukewarm import data.
The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) .KS11 was up
2.3 percent at 1,922.05 points as of 0222 GMT, set to reverse
end a three-day slide. Winners, remarkably, outnumbered losers
by 9.4 to 1.
Investors were focused on a Federal Reserve Open Market
Committee meeting due next week, where officials will decide
whether or not to raise U.S. interest rates for the first time
in almost a decade.
"Today's sharp rebound came following continuous falls.
Markets will fluctuate ahead of FOMC (Fed rates meeting) next
week as everyone is waiting for it," said Seo Myung-chan, an
analyst at Kiwoom Securities
Foreigners were set to break a 24-straight-day bout of
selling, purchasing a net 55.8 billion won($46.86 million) worth
of shares in the main board by midday.
Kiwoom's Seo noted current foreign purchases could be a
tentative change of position, rather than a change of tendency.
Recently-battered pharmaceutical shares .KS32 rebounded
sharply, up 4.9 percent. All 39 issues in the sector rose.
Steel maker Posco 005490.KS rose 4.4 percent, and memory
chip maker SK Hynix Inc 000660.KS gained 3 percent.
On the currency market, the South Korean won KRW= climbed
against the dollar as risk appetite recovered following gains in
global stock markets.
The South Korean won KRW=KFTC was up 0.8 percent at
1,190.9 per dollar.
"The won rose with risk-on sentiment. The currency market
seems to price in the possibility of a Fed rate hike in
September as market participants gradually perceive that a
September rate hike will not affect the market much," said Yuna
Park, a foreign-exchange analyst at Dongbu Securities.
September futures on three-year treasury bonds KTBc1 were
down 0.02 points at 109.58.
0222 GMT Prev close
Dollar/won 1,190.9 1,200.9
Yen/won 9.8945/994 9.9638
*KTB futures 109.58 109.60
KOSPI 1,922.05 1,878.68
* Front-month futures on three-year treasury bonds
($1 = 1,190.7000 won)