S.Korea stocks push higher as investors eye U.S. economic stimulus

    * KOSPI rises, foreigners net sellers
    * Korean won weakens against U.S. dollar
    * South Korea benchmark bond yield rises

    SEOUL, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean financial
markets:
 
** South Korean shares rose on Monday, led by chip giants
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, while investors looked ahead
to U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting and mulled the prospects
for more fiscal stimulus. The Korean won weakened, while the
benchmark bond yield rose.
 
** By 02:27 GMT, the benchmark KOSPI         rose 47.92 points,
or 1.53%, to 3,188.55. 
    
** Investors expect an update on the $1.9 trillion U.S. stimulus
bill and await earnings reports from technology heavyweights due
in days, says Choi Yoo-june, an analyst at Shinhan Investment &
Securities.             
    
** Officials in President Joe Biden's administration tried to
head off Republican concerns that his $1.9 trillion pandemic
relief proposal was too expensive on a Sunday call with
Republican and Democratic lawmakers, some of whom pushed for a
smaller plan targeting vaccine distribution.                
    
** Samsung Electronics             was up 2%, while peer SK
Hynix             jumped 4.6%. 
** Foreigners were net sellers of 100.3 billion won worth of
shares on the main board.         
 
** The won was quoted at 1,105.0 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform           , 0.16% lower than its previous
close at 1,103.2.
 
** In offshore trading, the won        was quoted at 1,104.5 per
dollar, up 0.1% from the previous day, while in non-deliverable
forward trading its one-month contract               was quoted
at 1,103.9.
 
** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
                was down 0.85%,.
 
** The KOSPI has risen 10.97% so far this year, and gained 16.3%
in the previous 30 trading sessions.
    
** The trading volume during the session in the KOSPI index
        was 579.88 million shares. Of the total traded issues of
910, the number of advancing shares was 555.
 
** The won has lost 1.7% against the dollar so far this year.
 
** The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by 0.8
basis points to 1.001%, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose
by 1.6 basis points to 1.775%.

 (Reporting by Cynthia Kim; Additional reporting by Jihoon Lee;
Editing by Arun Koyyur)