SEOUL (Dow Jones) -- South Korean shares Wednesday closed higher led by defensive telecom and utility stocks, while Samsung Electronics outperformed its peers on news that it has settled its litigation with Rambus.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index, or Kospi, added 4.16 points, or 0.2%, to end at 1714.38.
Telecom and utility stocks jumped as institutional investors shifted their interest to large-capitalized companies centered on the domestic economy that have lagged technology and auto firms in 2009, said Yang Jong-in, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities.
“It's very rare for defensive stocks to show such a strong performance,” said Oh Hyun-seok, an analyst at Samsung Securities. “(But) I'm not yet convinced about whether their strong performance is just part of a normalization process or a sign that they may replace technology and auto stocks as leading stocks this year.”
Foreigners bought a net KRW211.2 billion worth of stocks, while domestic institutions were net sellers of shares worth KRW261.3 billion.