** South Korean shares started the week with gains, making them the outlier in the region, as chip heavyweights tracked U.S. peers higher due to a brightening outlook for memory chip demand. The won weakened and the benchmark bond yield fell.

** The KOSPI (.KS11) rose 28.54 points, or 0.96%, to 2,999.56 by 0204 GMT.

** Chip giant Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) jumped as much as 5.34% to a seven-week high, while its peer SK Hynix (000660.KS) also soared to a 15-week peak, on optimism over chip demand and infrastructure investments in 2022.

** Foreigners were net buyers of 419.5 billion won ($353.47 million) worth of shares, while the foreign net buying into the two shares took up nearly 92.6% of all in early trade.

** Among other heavyweights, platform company Naver (035420.KS) slid 0.37%, while automaker Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) gained 2.63%.

** Meanwhile, data showed South Korean exports for the first 20 days of November jumped 27.6% year-on-year on a continuing sales boost in semiconductor and petroleum products.

** Trade is likely to be thinned this week by Thanksgiving in the United States, but traders are closely monitoring COVID-19 cases in Europe and central bank developments.

** Central banks in South Korea and New Zealand are expected to hike rates this week.

** The won was quoted at 1,187.8 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform , down 0.21%.

** In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,186.4 per dollar, up 0.1%, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,187.3.

** In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.06 point to 108.43.

** The benchmark 10-year yield fell by 0.7 basis point to 2.364%.

Source By : https://www.reuters.com/markets/stocks/skorean-stocks-rise-chip-heavyweights-boost-2021-11-22/