Seoul shares up late Tue. morning

South Korean stocks traded higher late Tuesday morning as the U.S. market rallied ahead of the Jackson Hole symposium scheduled for later this week. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) had added 23.8 points, or 0.89 percent, to 2,698.16 as of 11:20 a.m. Investors largely remained optimistic overnight in Wall Street as they waited for clues over the Federal Reserve's future rate cut from Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech this week. Top tech giant Samsung Electronics moved up 1.79 percent, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix added 3.4 percent. Financial shares traded bullish as well, with KB Financial advancing 1.38 percent and Shinhan Financial increasing 1.75 percent. Pharmaceutical firms, on the other hand, traded lower, with Samsung Biologics falling 2.37 percent and Celltrion losing 0.25 percent. The local currency was trading at 1,330.4 won against the U.S. dollar, up 3.6 won from the previous session's close. Source: Yonhap News Agency