SEOUL, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- South Korean stocks rebounded in four trading days Thursday as foreign investors turned into net buyers following Wall Street rally overnight.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) soared 104.71 points, or 3.5 percent, to settle at 3,099.69. Trading volume stood at 1.25 billion shares worth 16.9 trillion won (15.3 billion U.S. dollars).

The KOSPI started 1.05 percent higher and extended earlier gains throughout the session as foreign and institutional investors bought stocks worth 968.5 billion won and 977.5 won billion won each.

Offshore investors shifted into net buyers in the local stock market in seven sessions as U.S. stocks rallied overnight following U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's testimony to Congress.

Retail investors dumped a net 1.9 trillion won worth of stocks to lock in profits. It marked the biggest daily sale by individual investors, surpassing the previous high of 1.68 trillion won tallied in December 2011.

The Bank of Korea (BOK) expected the real gross domestic product (GDP), adjusted for inflation, to grow 3.0 percent this year after contracting 1.0 percent last year amid an economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The BOK said in a statement that recovery in private consumption would be delayed this year due to the continued pandemic and the lackluster household income, although export and investment would turn around on the global economic recovery.

The central bank kept its benchmark interest rate on hold at an all-time low of 0.50 percent during its regular rate-setting meeting. The policy rate has been left unchanged since May last year.

Despite the KOSPI rebound, market watchers worried about the recent volatility in the stock market.

For the first 37 trading days in 2021, the KOSPI fluctuated over 2 percent for 23 days. It indicates the sharp volatility of local stocks was shown in three out of five trading days this year.

In 2020 when the pandemic roiled the global stock market, the KOSPI moved over 2 percent in one out of four trading days.

Blue-chip shares gained ground. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics soared 4.0 percent, and memory chip giant SK hynix surged 9.2 percent. Biopharmaceutical behemoth Celltrion jumped 9.2 percent, and Samsung BioLogics, a pharmaceutical unit of Samsung Group, went up 3.8 percent.

The biggest automaker Hyundai Motor climbed 4.3 percent, and leading chemical firm LG Chem gained 3.5 percent. The most-used search engine Naver added 2.4 percent, and rechargeable battery producer Samsung SDI increased 2.5 percent.

The small-cap KOSDAQ advanced 29.90 points, or 3.30 percent, to close at 936.21.

The local currency finished at 1,107.8 won versus the greenback, up 4.4 won from the prior close. The South Korean currency appreciated on the foreign purchase of domestic stocks.

Bond prices ended mixed. Yield on the liquid three-year treasury notes fell 1.1 basis points to 0.995 percent, but the return on the 10-year government bonds was up 3.3 basis point to 1.884 percent. Enditem

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