South Korea battery maker LG Chem shares jump, boosted by Tesla sales boom

Shares in electric vehicle battery maker LG Chem leapt as much as 4.1% in early trade on Thursday after the firm and major customer Tesla Inc both posted record quarterly profits

SEOUL (Reuters) - Shares in electric vehicle battery maker LG Chem <051910.KS> leapt as much as 4.1% in early trade on Thursday after the firm and major customer Tesla Inc both posted record quarterly profits.

Tesla on Wednesday reported its fifth consecutive quarterly profit on record revenue of $8.8 billion, boosted by an uptick in vehicle deliveries and sales of environmental regulatory credits to other automakers.

Meanwhile, LG Chem on Wednesday forecast a further rise in its battery sales and profit in the fourth quarter after posting record quarterly earnings thanks to growing demand for electric vehicle batteries.

The wider Seoul market <.KS11> was down 0.9% as of 0022 GMT.

 

(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)