Round-up of South Korean financial markets:

 

** South Korean shares fell more than 1% on Wednesday, as chipmakers and battery manufacturers dropped, tracking Wall Street's overnight losses on growing chances of a delay in interest rate cuts.

** The benchmark KOSPI closed down 46.19 points, or 1.68%, at 2,706.97, marking its biggest percentage drop since March 15.

** "The local market showed mixed reaction to the earthquake in Taiwan, because South Korean and Taiwanese chipmakers are not 100% competitors to each other," said Cho Jun-kee, analyst, SK Securities.

** A 7.2 magnitude earthquake rocked Taiwan on Wednesday, the strongest tremor to hit the island in at least 25 years, causing evacuation at some facilities of its chipmaker TSMC .

** South Korean chip giant Samsung Electronics fell 1.06% and peer SK Hynix lost 3.81%, tracking losses in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.

** Battery maker LG Energy Solution slid 4.33%, after U.S. electric-vehicle giant Tesla's sharp drop on weak sales. Peers Samsung SDI and SK Innovation fell 5.52% and 3.61%, respectively.

** Search engine Naver rose 0.73% after it signed a memorandum of understanding with the country's Financial Supervisory Service for cooperation on artificial intelligence technologies.

** GS Engineering & Construction rose 4.34% and Samsung Engineering gained 2.64%, after they won construction orders in Saudi Arabia.

** Hanwha Corp rallied 7.30% after it decided to spin off its battery and machinery-related business.

** Of the total 932 traded issues, 246 shares advanced, while 637 declined.

** Foreigners were net sellers of shares worth 269.9 billion won ($199.99 million) on the main board.

** The won ended onshore trade at 1,348.9 per dollar, 0.24% higher than its previous close at 1,352.1.

** The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by 1.2 basis points to 3.345%, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 3.7 basis points to 3.462%. ($1 = 1,349.6000 won) (Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Janane Venkatraman )