South Korean battery shares shine on Tesla rally

Round-up of South Korean financial markets:

** South Korean shares rose on Monday as local battery suppliers of Tesla TSLA gained after the EV market leader's rally last week. The won weakened, while the benchmark bond yield rose.

** The benchmark KOSPI KOSPI rose 11.60 points, or 0.45%, to 2,594.87 by 02:17 GMT.

** Among index heavyweights, chipmaker Samsung Electronics 005930 rose 2.33% and peer SK Hynix 000660 lost 1.19%, while Tesla battery suppliers LG Energy Solution 373220 and LG Chem 051910 rose 0.9% and 4.6%, respectively.

** LG Energy Solution posted a 39% drop in quarterly profit, but shares rose as the result beat analysts' estimates.

** Hyundai 005380 shed 0.44% and sister automaker Kia 000270 gained 3.02%, while search engine Naver 035420 and instant messenger Kakao 035720 added 0.83% and 0.82%, respectively.

** Tesla closed nearly 22% higher on Thursday, its biggest single-day gain in over a decade, as CEO Elon Musk's bold forecast of surging sales reassured investors that he was still looking to grow the core business of selling electric cars.

** Korea Zinc 010130 secured 9.85% of its shares in a buyback it launched to block shareholders from selling stakes to its top investor Young Poong and private equity firm MBK.

** Foreigners were net sellers of shares worth 52.4 billion won ($37.8 million) on the main board.

** The won was quoted at 1,390.1 per U.S. dollar on the onshore settlement platform USDKRW, 0.06% lower than its previous close at 1,389.2.

** The KOSPI has fallen 2.28% so far this year but gained 0.3% in the previous 30 trading sessions.

** The won has lost 7.3% against the dollar so far this year.

** In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds (KTBc1) fell 0.15 point to 105.85.

** The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield (KR3YT=RR) rose by 5.5 basis points to 2.933%, while the benchmark 10-year yield KR10 rose by 6.3 basis points to 3.113%.

($1 = 1,386.3200 won)