KOSPI rises, foreigners net buyers
Korean won weakens against dollar
South Korea benchmark bond yield rises
SEOUL, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean financial markets:
** South Korean shares hit record highs on Thursday, as chipmakers tracked a rally in U.S. peers on optimism around artificial intelligence demand.
** The benchmark KOSPI .KS11 was up 104.56 points, or 1.95%, at 5,459.05 as of 0126 GMT, hitting its highest level on record.
** Chipmaker Samsung Electronics 005930.KS rose 3.87% to an all-time high, and peer SK Hynix 000660.KS gained 2.97%, after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index .SOX jumped 2.3% on Wednesday. .N
** Chip manufacturing equipment maker Hanmi Semiconductor 042700.KS rallied as much as 17.9% to a peak, after customer Micron Technology MU.O jumped 10% on Wednesday on CFO Mark Murphy's comment that advanced HBM4 chip shipments had begun.
** Among other index heavyweights, battery maker LG Energy Solution 373220.KS climbed 3.19%, while Hyundai Motor 005380.KS and sister automaker Kia Corp 000270.KS were unchanged and up 1.30%, respectively.
** Steelmaker POSCO Holdings 005490.KS added 4.17%, while drugmaker Samsung BioLogics 207940.KS fell 0.23%.
** Of the total 926 traded issues, 528 shares advanced, while 346 declined.
** Foreigners were net buyers of shares worth 604.6 billion won ($417.74 million).
** The won was quoted at 1,449.1 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform KRW=KFTC, 0.14% lower than its previous close at 1,447.0.
** In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds KTBc1 lost 0.04 point to 104.90.
** The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield KR3YT=RR rose by 1.5 basis points to 3.219%, while the benchmark 10-year yield KR10YT=RR rose by 1.8 basis points to 3.660%.
($1 = 1,447.3200 won)
(Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)
((jihoon.lee@thomsonreuters.com;))