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South Korean stocks opened higher Wednesday as investors awaited results from the U.S. midterm elections, which could reshape policy directions during President Donald Trump's second half in office.
SEOUL, Nov. 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korean stocks started sharply higher Wednesday, driven by gains in tech shares as investors awaited results from the U.S. midterm elections.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 137.34 points, or 2.43 percent, to 5,786.13 at the opening bell.
Overnight on Wall Street, the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.83 percent on strong chip shares and the S&P 500 climbed 0.36 percent. The PHLX chip index climbed 2.63 percent.
Voting in the U.S. midterm elections started Tuesday, which could reshape the policy directions of President Donald Trump's second half in office.

SK Telecom reported Q3 operating profit of 552.3 billion won, up 1,041.3% year-on-year, with net profit swinging to 411.8 billion won from a 166.7 billion won loss, driven by mobile service growth and AI ventures including new subsidiaries SK Hyper and SK Horizon.
![[Featured stock] LG Household & Health Care plummets by more than 10% due to performance below expectations](/api/img?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.yna.co.kr%2Fphoto%2Fcms%2F2026%2F08%2F05%2F84%2FPCM20260805000084030_P2.jpg&w=320&q=72&f=webp)
As LG Household & Health Care's third quarter operating profit of 70.4 billion won fell 30.5% below the market consensus, its stock price plunged more than 10% during the day on the 4th. Many securities companies, including Hana Securities, LS Securities, and Kiwoom Securities, all lowered their target stock prices.

SK Biopharm submitted an sNDA to the FDA to add the indication for primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures for ages 12 and older for its new epilepsy drug cenobamate. As a result of the global phase 3 clinical trial, the frequency of seizures was statistically significantly reduced, and upon approval, the treatment area and target patient group will be expanded.

KB Securities will raise ELBs with a 1-year maturity, profit-referring upward trend, using KOSPI 200 and Samsung Electronics as underlying assets three times until the 30th. If a knockout does not occur, a maximum annual rate of return of 36-37% is applied, and if a knockout occurs, a rate of return of 2-3% per year is applied.

Apollo Global Management is acting as a funding source in the debt financing market using AI chips as collateral. Loans in the third quarter increased by more than 50% compared to the previous quarter, reaching a record high of $114 billion, and included loans collateralized by Antropic and Nvidia AI chips.

GS Retail achieved its highest ever performance in the third quarter of this year, recording KRW 132.1 billion in operating profit and KRW 3.3143 trillion in sales on a consolidated basis. Super GS The Fresh sales increased 14.9% from the previous year to KRW 527.7 billion, and operating profit soared 159.8% to KRW 23.9 billion. Convenience store GS25 and home shopping GS Shop also increased both sales and operating profit.