South Korean shares rebound on easing Fed concerns

South Korean shares rebounded in four sessions Monday due to worse-than-expected jobs data in the United States that eased concerns over the U.S. Federal Reserve's tapering of its bond purchasing program. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 10. 38 points, or 0.54 percent, to close at 1,948.92. Trading volume stood at 264.16 million shares worth 3.29 trillion won (3.11 billion U.S. dollars). Market sentiment was boosted as investors considered the worse- than-expected employment in the U.S. as good news, believing it may prompt the Fed to slower its pace of scaling back bond buying program. The Fed decided to reduce its monthly bond purchases by 10 billion dollars to 75 billion dollars starting from this month. The U.S. economy added 74,000 jobs in December, the fewest in three years. The jobs growth was much weaker than economists' expectations for about 200,000 new jobs. Institutional and retail investors bought shares worth 66.6 billion won and 22.2 billion won respectively, offsetting sales by foreign investors worth 95.4 billion won. Among 16 sectors that make up the KOSPI, 11 industries such as tech and auto sectors ended in positive territory. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics rose 1.8 percent, and top automaker Hyundai Motor advanced 3.2 percent. The No.2 carmaker Kia Motors gained 1.7 percent, and the nation's biggest auto parts maker Hyundai Mobis rose 2.2 percent. The South Korean currency finished at 1,056.7 won against the greenback, up 4.7 won from Friday's close. Bond prices ended higher. The yield on the liquid three-year treasury notes fell 0.02 percentage point to 2.89 percent, but the return on the benchmark 10-year government bonds lost 0.03 percentage point to 3.62 percent.