Seoul shares seen up after U.S. rebound; KT&G eyed

SEOUL, April 22 (Reuters) - Seoul shares are likely to open
higher on Wednesday following overnight gains on Wall Street,
with financials likely to be helped by rallies in their U.S.
peers on comments by the U.S. Treasury Secretary.

"We will probably see gains today as rises on Wall Street
bode well for Seoul shares, and a batch of better-than-expected
set of earnings lately, including that of LG Electronics
(066570.KS) yesterday, has eased some caution about key
earnings due out late this week," said Lim Dong-min, a market
analyst at Dongbu Securities.

Hyundai Motor's (005380.KS) results are due on Thursday,
while Samsung Elec, Hynix (000660.KS) results are due on
Friday.

Financials including KB Financial Group (105560.KS) may
rise in the wake of the S&P financial index's .GSPF jump by
8.19 percent, after U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
indicated most banks have sufficient reserves to protect
against possible losses. [ID:nN21168975]

The market is expected to watching KT&G (033780.KS) closely
ahead of quarterly results scheduled for release at around 0130
GMT, analysts said.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) ended
up 0.03 percent at 1,336.81 on Tuesday.
----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 2241 GMT ------------

INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG
S&P 500 .SPX 850.08 2.13% 17.690
USD/JPY JPY= 98.61 -0.03% -0.030
10-YR US TSY YLD US10YT=RR 2.9025 -- 0.000
SPOT GOLD XAU= 882.25 0.00% 0.000
US CRUDE CLc1 48.82 0.56% 0.270
DOW JONES .DJI 7969.56 1.63% 127.83
ASIA ADRS .BKAS 97.67 2.19% 2.09
-------------------------------------------------------------

MARKETS SUMMARY *Wall St gains as banks lifted by Geithner
remarks [nN21168975] *Treasuries prices slump as stocks rebound

[nN21496060] *Oil gains with Wall St., Iran points to
OPEC cut [nSP465475] *Euro up as stocks rise, market anxiety
remains [nN21581569]

STOCKS TO WATCH

SK ENERGY (096770.KS)

South Koera's top refiner said on Tuesday it had shut its
No.1 crude unit due to bad margins for transporting fuels such
as gasoline and diesel. [ID:nPEK60722]

(Reporting by Jungyoun Park; Editing by Valerie Lee)