South Korean stocks surged 1.63 percent late Wednesday morning as investors picked up battered blue chips amid hopes for eased woes on an imminent rate hike in the U.S.     

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 31.57 points to 1,964.54 as of 11:20 a.m.  

The U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise its target rates for the first time since June 2006. Overnight, the Dow Jones industrial average and the Nasdaq index surged 0.9 percent, each.     

Local stocks traded bullish across the board, with most of market heavyweights being in positive territory.

Tech giant Samsung Electronics surged 1.57 percent and top automaker Hyundai Motor advanced 1.12 percent.    

Refiners and chemicals also gathered ground, as global oil prices have recovered from the deepening rout. The country's No. 3 refiner S-Oil spiked 6.7 percent and top chemicals firm LG Chem jumped 2.56 percent.   

The local currency was changing hands at 1,179.5 won against the greenback as of 11:20 a.m., up 3.9 won from Tuesday's close.  (Yonhap)