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KOSPI rises, foreigners net buyers

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Korean won strengthens against dollar

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South Korea benchmark bond yield flat

SEOUL, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean financial markets:

** South Korean shares rose more than 1% on Wednesday, resuming trade after the Lunar New Year holidays, as investors caught up with Wall Street's sharp rally in the recent sessions. The won strengthened, while the benchmark bond yield was flat.

** The benchmark KOSPI rose 33.19 points, or 1.39%, to 2,428.45 as of 0200 GMT, after rising as much as 1.56% to its highest intraday level since Dec. 5, 2022.

** South Korea's financial markets were closed on Monday and Tuesday. Wall Street ended little changed on Tuesday, after two straight upbeat sessions.

** "The local market followed Wall Street's strong trend during the holiday period, with large-cap stocks evenly rising on index-tracked passive buying by foreigners," said Kim Seok-hwan, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities.

** South Korea's financial regulator said on Tuesday it would scrap a number of regulations in the local stock market within this year to make investment easier for foreigners.

** Chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix rose 2.59% and 4.79%, respectively. Battery makers were up between 2% and 5%. Automakers added more than 1%.

** Search engine Naver jumped 3.06% and instant messenger Kakao gained 2.61%. Of the total 932 issues traded, 517 shares advanced.

** Foreigners were net buyers of shares worth 385.4 billion won ($312.50 million) in their 15th buying session out of 16 this year.

** The won was quoted at 1,233.7 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, up 0.15%.

** In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.07 point to 104.92.

** The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield fell by 2.9 basis points to 3.305%, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 0.1 basis point to 3.281%. ($1 = 1,233.2900 won) (Reporting by Jihoon Lee; editing by Uttaresh.V)