Seoul, April 16 (IANS) South Korean stocks traded sharply higher late on Thursday morning amid hopes for a second round of peace talks between Washington and Tehran.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 132.06 points, or 2.17 percent, to 6,223.45 as of 11:20 a.m (local time), reports Yonhap news agency.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox News released Wednesday (U.S. time) that the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran is “very close to over,” while the White House said further talks “would very likely” take place in the Pakistani capital.

A Pakistani delegation arrived in Tehran to help arrange another round of negotiations between the United States and Iran.

A blockade of Iranian ports by the U.S. Navy continued after the first round of negotiations failed over the weekend.

Tech and auto shares traded in positive territory. Chip giant Samsung Electronics rose 3.08 percent, and SK hynix gained 1.85 percent.

Top automaker Hyundai Motor advanced 6.1 percent and its sister Kia increased 4.75 percent.

Major shipbuilders HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hanwha Ocean added 4.21 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively.

Defence shares were mixed as industry leader Hanwha Aerospace went up 0.73 percent, while LIG D&A fell 1.79 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,473.45 won against the greenback at 11:20 a.m., up 0.75 won from the previous session.

Meanwhile, foreign investors net sold a new monthly high amount of local stocks in March, data showed on Thursday, as the U.S.-Iran conflict boosted risk-off sentiment.

Offshore investors offloaded a net 43.51 trillion won (US$29.5 billion) worth of local stocks last month, following a net selling of 19.56 billion won the previous month, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Following their net selling in March, offshore investors owned 1,576.2 trillion won worth of local stocks, or 30.7 percent of total market capitalisation.

By country, investors from Britain were the top sellers in March, net selling 16.3 trillion won worth of shares, followed by those from the United States with a net sell-off of 9.5 trillion won, according to the data.

—IANS

na/