South Korean stocks ended slightly higher Thursday as investors scooped up large-cap stocks. The Korean won rose against the US dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 12.84 points, or 0.54 percent, to 2,370.37.

Individuals bought a net 75.68 billion won ($65 million) worth of stocks. Foreigners also turned net buyers of domestic stocks worth more than 17 billion won. But institutions dumped their holdings.  

Kim Ye-eun, an analyst at Cape Investment & Securities, said investors bought large-cap stocks, such as Samsung Electronics Co., pushing up the benchmark index.

Bae Sung-young, a market analyst at KB Securities Co., also said technology and financial stocks led gains, which he said had a positive impact on the index.

He also said Samsung Electronics is boosted by a rosy estimate of its second quarter operating profit.

Shinhan Investment Corp. has projected that the world's largest manufacturer of smartphones will rack up an operating income of over 13 trillion won during the second quarter of the year, up 32.4 percent from the previous quarter.

Market bellwether Samsung Electronics advanced 1.01 percent to 2,398,000 won, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix gained 0.31 percent to 65,000 won.

Among decliners, No. 1 refiner SK Innovation fell 0.32 percent to 156,500 won.

The local currency closed at 1,140.90 won against the US dollar, up 3.10 won from the previous session's close.
 
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, ended lower. The yield on three-year Treasurys rose 0.9 basis point to 1.701 percent and the return on benchmark five-year government bonds climbed 1.6 basis points to 1.870 percent. (Yonhap)