Anchor: South Korea’s benchmark  Korea Composite Stock Price Index(KOSPI) closed above the three-thousand point benchmark for the first time ever Thursday. Institutional buying powered the historic high, which also reflected expectations that Washington will pursue expanded stimulus policies.
Robert Koehler has the report.

Report: The KOSPI ended trading on Thursday at three-thousand-31-point-68, up two-point-14 percent.

Institutional investors led the rally, buying more than one trillion won in stocks, while individual investors engaged in profit taking.

Thursday’s trading also reflected hope that the “blue wave” materializing in the wake of Democratic Party victories in the U.S. Senatorial runoff elections in Georgia will lead to greater economic stimulus policies. 

This powered stock prices for semiconductors, secondary cells and cars.

A day earlier, the KOSPI briefly broke the three-thousand line during trading, reaching the milestone 13 years and five months after it first surpassed the two-thousand mark on July 25, 2007.

The tech-heavy KOSDAQ also rose, closing at nine-hundred-88-point-86, up point-76 percent from a day before.

On the foreign exchange, the local currency weakened one-point-seven won against the dollar, ending the session at one-thousand-87-point-three won.
Robert Koehler, KBS World Radio News.