South Korea's stimulus package announced moves Seoul forward

The Seoul Stock Exchange advanced today encouraged by the stimulus package announced today by the South Korean government for the companies most affected by the coronavirus.

The main South Korean indicator, the Kospi, gained 16.77 points, 0.89%, on Wednesday, closing at 1,896.15 integers, while the Kosdaq technology index rose 1.02% or 6.39 points, remaining at 635.16 units.

The South Korean government today announced an increase in the initially planned stimulus package by 100 trillion won (about € 74,622 million / $ 81,094 million) for the business sector.

The increase will be another 35 trillion (26,120 million euros / 28,384 million dollars), of which 20 will be used for the purchase of corporate bonds and 10 will be used for more loans to companies.

This, coupled with the slight rise in oil relative to its record lows, encouraged buying by investors, who were still reasonably cautious ahead of this week's presentation of earnings sheets.

The closings of the main securities were mixed.

Tech companies led the gains, with Samsung Electronics, the benchmark token in Seoul, up 1.2% today and the world's second-largest chipmaker, SK Hynix, up 3.2%.

South Korea's leading airline Korean Air gained 0.5%.

In contrast, the country's main vehicle maker, Hyundai Motor, depreciated 1%, while the main national steelmaker, POSCO, fell 0.6%.

For its part, the local currency, the won, today gained 2.5 units to the dollar, which at the close was changed at 1,232.2 won.