South Korean shares rise more than 4% on US chip boost

SEOUL, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean financial markets:

** South Korean shares rose more than 4% on Monday, after U.S. semiconductor stocks jumped in the previous session on easing worries over artificial intelligence investment.

** The benchmark KOSPI .KS11 closed up 208.90 points, or 4.10%, at 5,298.04, after two straight sessions of sharp losses.

** Wall Street ended sharply higher on Friday, as Nvidia NVDA.O and other chipmakers soared on expectations they would benefit from increased spending on AI data centres. .N

** "Market sentiment was also supported by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's comment that AI infrastructure investment was at an appropriate level," said Lee Kyoung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities.

** Among index heavyweights, chipmaker Samsung Electronics 005930.KS rose 4.92%, while peer SK Hynix 000660.KS gained 5.72%. Battery maker LG Energy Solution 373220.KS climbed 2.47%.

** Hyundai Motor 005380.KS and sister automaker Kia Corp 000270.KS were up 2.25% and 1.25%, respectively. Steelmaker POSCO Holdings 005490.KS added 1.11%, while drugmaker Samsung BioLogics 207940.KS rose 1.56%.

** Of the total 926 traded issues, 717 shares advanced, while 174 declined.

** Foreigners were net buyers of shares worth 441.6 billion won ($302.30 million).

** The won was quoted at 1,460.6 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform KRW=KFTC, 0.16% higher than its previous close at 1,463.0.

** In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds KTBc1 gained 0.02 point to 104.67.

** The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield KR3YT=RR rose by 3.9 basis points to 3.267%, while the benchmark 10-year yield KR10YT=RR rose by 2.8 basis points to 3.753%.

($1 = 1,460.8000 won)

(Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

((jihoon.lee@thomsonreuters.com;))