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Seoul shares seen buoyed by Bernanke's defense of monetary easing

SEOUL, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Seoul shares are likely to rebound on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reassured investors that stimulus measures in the United States would continue. "The KOSPI will get a boost from the rally in U.S. markets following Bernanke's comments," said Kim Sung-hwan, an analyst at Bookook Securities. U.S. equities climbed as Bernanke strongly defended the Fed's bond-buying stimulus, easing worries that monetary policymakers might be getting cold feet about continuing the extraordinary measures to support the economy. However, Kim said that gains will be capped due to concerns about automatic federal spending cuts expected to begin on March 1 in the United States. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 0.5 percent to close at a one-week low of 2,000.01 points on Tuesday. ------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 22:28 GMT------------------ INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG S&P 500 1,496.94 0.61% 9.090 USD/JPY 91.96 -0% 0.000 10-YR US TSY YLD 1.886 -- 0.021 SPOT GOLD $1,613.70 0.04% 0.590 US CRUDE $92.63 -0.52% -0.480 DOW JONES 13900.13 0.84% 115.96 ASIA ADRS 135.60 1.00% 1.34 ------------------------------------------------------------->Wa ll Street rebounds on Bernanke comments >Yields near 1-month low as Bernanke defend bond buy >Euro flat after seesaw session >Brent crude oil drop under $113 on Italian votefear ---STOCKS TO WATCH--- **SSANGYONG MOTOR CO ** The country's fourth-largest carmaker posted its best annual sales figures since 2007 and also cut its operating losses in the fourth quarter to 99 billion won ($90 million), 30 percent lower than the previous year. Ssangyong is majority-owned by India's Mahindra & Mahindra ($1 = 1088.0000 Korean won) (Reporting by Somang Yang; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)