Round-up of South Korean financial markets:

** South Korean shares rose more than 2% on Thursday, logging their biggest daily gain in seven weeks, as the U.S. Federal Reserve signalled it was on track for three interest rate cuts this year. The won strengthened while the benchmark bond yield fell.

** The benchmark KOSPI rose 64.72 points, or 2.41%, to 2,754.86 by 06:30 GMT, the sharpest daily gain since Feb. 2.

** Among index heavyweights, chipmaker Samsung Electronics rose 3.12% and peer SK Hynix gained 8.63%, after memory chip maker Micron Technology tapped a surge in artificial intelligence adoption to forecast third-quarter revenue above estimates on Wednesday.

** Hyundai Motor added 4.56% and sister automaker Kia Corp was flat, while search engine Naver and instant messenger Kakao were up 0.71% and 1.32%, respectively.

** Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that recent high inflation readings had not changed the underlying "story" of slowly easing price pressures in the U.S. as the central bank stayed on track for three rate cuts this year and affirmed that solid economic growth will continue.

** South Korea's exports for the first 20 days of March jumped 11.2% from the same period the year before, customs agency data showed.

** Of the total 933 traded issues, 655 shares advanced, while 219 declined.

** The won was quoted at 1,322.4 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 1.32% higher than its previous close at 1,339.8.

** In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,323.1 per dollar, up 0.5% on the day, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,320.8.

** In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.16 point to 104.81.

** The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield fell 6.9 basis points to 3.314%, while the benchmark 10-year yield fell 4.4 basis points to 3.415%. (Reporting by Cynthia Kim; Editing by Eileen Soreng)