*

KOSPI rises, foreigners net buyers

*

Korean won strengthens against US dollar

*

South Korea benchmark bond yield falls

SEOUL, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean

financial markets:

** South Korean shares rose on Tuesday, helped by gains in

chip and IT shares after Nvidia ( NVDA ) hit a record high ahead of a

speech by chief executive Jensen Huang.

** The blue-chip KOSPI added 25.54 points, or 1.03%,

at 2,514.36 as of 02:15 GMT. The won strengthened, while the

benchmark bond yield fell.

** Many of South Korea's chipmakers are involved in the

supply of high bandwith memory (HBM) chips for Nvidia's ( NVDA ) AI

processors.

** Among index heavyweights, chipmaker Samsung Electronics ( SSNLF )

rose 0.89%. Battery maker LG Energy Solution

climbed 2.07%.

** Hyundai added 0.24%, while sister automaker

Kia lost 0.60%. Search engine Naver and

instant messenger Kakao advanced 0.48% and 0.26%,

respectively.

** On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite hit

more than one-week highs overnight. Nvidia ( NVDA ) surged

3.43%.

** Nvidia's ( NVDA ) Chief Executive Jensen Huang will deliver the

opening keynote speech at CES later on Monday and likely unveil

new videogame chips and detail efforts to parlay the company's

success in artificial intelligence (AI) into other markets

outside of the data center.

** Of the total 941 traded issues, 550 advanced and 305

declined.

** Foreigners net bought shares worth 107 billion won

($73.6 million) on the main board on Tuesday.

** The won was quoted at 1,453.1 per U.S. dollar on the

onshore settlement platform, 0.47% higher than

Monday's close of 1,460.0.

** The KOSPI has risen 4.79% so far this year, gaining 0.3%

in the last 30 sessions.

** The won has gained 1.3% against the dollar year-to-date.

** In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year

treasury bonds rose 0.09 point to 106.87.

** The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield

rose by 2.2 basis points to 2.511%, while the

benchmark 10-year yield fell by 2.3 basis points to

2.805%.

($1 = 1,454.0000 won)