Seoul shares seen up helped by N.Korea news

SEOUL, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Seoul shares are set to open higher
on Friday after gains overnight on Wall Street, with news that
North Korea on Thursday released a South Korean worker it had
held since late March likely to help sentiment further.

"Markets will gain after yesterday's last minute losses on
programme selling amid options expiry, and rises in U.S. shares
will further help Seoul markets," said Lim Dong-min, a market
analyst at KB Investment & Securities.

Lim added that shares in South Korean companies with business
links to North Korea, such as Kwangmyung Electric Engineering Co
Ltd (017040.KS) and watchmaker Romanson Co Ltd (026040.KQ), could
be boosted by news of the South Korean worker's release.
[ID:nSP374290]

Gains in crude prices CLc1 may help refining issues such as
SK Energy (096770.KS), South Korea's top refiner.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI)
finished down 0.05 percent at 1,564.64 points on Thursday.
----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 2248 GMT ------------

INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG
S&P 500 .SPX 1012.73 0.69% 6.920
USD/JPY JPY= 95.27 -0.1% -0.100
10-YR US TSY YLD US10YT=RR 3.6043 -- 0.000
SPOT GOLD XAU= 955.7 0.23% 2.200
US CRUDE CLc1 70.93 0.58% 0.410
DOW JONES .DJI 9398.19 0.39% 36.58
ASIA ADRS .BKAS 122.46 1.06% 1.28
-------------------------------------------------------------

MARKETS SUMMARY
*Wall Street rises as Wal-Mart offsets weak data [nN13266242]
*Oil rises, tracking Wall Street [nN13257784]
*Fed did not intervene in FX market in Q2 - NY Fed [nN13345898]
*Treasuries rally on solid 30-yr auction, weak data[nN13597430]

STOCKS TO WATCH

LG DISPLAY (034220.KS)

Nomura upgraded LG Display to "Buy" from "Reduce." The LCD
industry's utilisation ratio would be capped at under 90 percent
until December due to an ongoing glass shortage exacerbated by a
recent earthquake in Japan, Nomura analyst James Kim said in a
note dated Friday.

LG FASHION (093050.KS)

Goldman Sachs reduced in a report dated August 13 its
12-month price-to-book-value based price target on the garment
maker to 28,000 won from the previous 30,000 won.

(Reporting by Jungyoun Park; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)