Asia
South Korean Shares Close Marginally Higher Despite Renewed US-Iran Tensions, Investors Eye Q1 Earnings
South Korean shares closed slightly higher on Monday despite an increase in tensions between the US and Iran after the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Spruance intercepted an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel called Touska near the Strait of Hormuz and Iran issued a warning to the US in the aftermath of the incident.Investors chose to shift their focus on the upcoming first-quarter earnings season instead.The Korea Composite Stock Price Index or Kospi rose 27.17 points, or 0.4%, to end at 6,219.09. The Kosdaq also increased by 4.81 points, or 0.4%, to close at 1,174.85.In corporate news, SK Hynix (KRX:000660) began the mass production of high-capacity 192GB products, which are optimized for Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform, the chipmaker said in a Monday release.The SOCAMM2 192GB (gigabyte) product is a memory module standard that is based on 10-nanometer class 6th generation (1c) LPDDR5X low-power dynamic random access memory.Shares of the chipmaker increased over 3% at market close.In other news, South Korean credit rating firms Korea Ratings, Korea Investors Service, and NICE Investors Service upgraded Hyundai Rotem's (KRX:064350) credit rating to AA- from A+.The upgrades were based on the defense systems manufacturer's strong capability to repay debt, improved earnings, and financial stability.Shares of Hyundai Rotem rose nearly 2% at market close.
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