South Korean stocks climbed for a ninth straight session on Wednesday, closing above the 4,700-point level for the first time, driven by strong rallies in technology and automotive shares.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index or Kospi rose by 30.46 points, or 0.7%, to finish at 4,723.1. The Kosdaq decreased by 6.8 points, or 0.7%, to close at 942.18.

In economic news, South Korea's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate climbed to 4.0% in December from 2.7% in November, according to data released by Statistics Korea on Wednesday.

On a year-over-year basis, the unemployment rate rose to 4.1% from 3.8%.

The number of unemployed people increased by 103,000 or 9.2% to 1.2 million in December from a year earlier, while the number of employed people grew by 168,000 to hit 28.2 million.

The employment rate for those aged 15-64 was 69.8% in the month, up 1.6% from a year earlier.

In other economic news, South Korea's export prices rose 5.5% year-over-year in December 2025, while import prices edged up by 0.3%, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea released on Wednesday.

On a month-on-month basis, the export price index and the import price index increased 1.1% and 0.7%, respectively, the data showed.

The net barter terms of trade index gained by 5.4% on-year during the month.

In corporate news, Hanmi Semiconductor (KRX:042700) secured an order for TC Bonder equipment for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) manufacturing from SK Hynix (KRX:000660), according to a Wednesday filing with the Korea Exchange.

The contract, valued at 9.65 billion won, is valid till April 1, 2028.

Shares of Hanmi Semiconductor rose about 3% at market close, while those of SK Hynix increased nearly 1%.