Seoul shares hit fresh high again late Wed. morning

▲ Employees work inside the dealing room of Hana Bank in central Seoul on Feb. 4, 2026. (Yonhap)

stocks-morning

Seoul shares hit fresh high again late Wed. morning

SEOUL, Feb. 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korean stock were trading higher late Wednesday morning, set for another record high, boosted by advances in battery, finance and manufacturing shares.

After choppy trading, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 51.46 points, or 0.97 percent, to 5,339.54 as of 11:20 a.m.

A decline in semiconductor heavyweights in the early hours limited a further advance, as they came under selling pressure amid artificial intelligence (AI) woes on Wall Street.

U.S. stocks had closed lower overnight on declines in software shares, after AI startup Anthropic unveiled a new feature for its chatbot Claude.

The new plug-in, designed to support core legal tasks, raised concerns that AI technology could reshape the software industry.

In Seoul, most large cap shares were trading higher.

Market bellwether Samsung Electronics remained flat, while its chipmaking rival SK hynix shed 1.32 percent.

Major financial group KB Financial advanced 2.16 percent, battery maker LG Energy solution edged up 2.69 percent, and metals producer Korea Zinc vaulted 8.16 percent.

Among the decliners were IT shares. Major portal operator Naver dipped 1.12 percent, and popular messenger operator Kakao fell 1.18 percent.

The Korean won was quoted at 1,450 won against the U.S. dollar as of 11:20 a.m., down 4.6 won from the previous session.

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