(Refiles to fix alignment, with no changes to text)

* KOSPI rises, foreigners net buyers

* Korean won strengthens against U.S. dollar

* South Korea benchmark bond yield rises

SEOUL, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean financial markets: ** South Korean shares climbed on Friday as foreigners returned as net buyers following a surge in U.S. tech shares and as a preliminary trade report showed Asia's fourth-largest economy may be bottoming out. The Korean won strengthened, and the benchmark bond yield rose. ** By 01:52 GMT, the benchmark KOSPI rose 10.52 points, or 0.46%, to 2,284.74. ** South Korean exports contracted by a smaller percentage of 7% in the first 20 days of August than in July, boosting hopes for a trade-led recovery even as threats loom from a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic in the capital Seoul.

** Yet another upswing on Wall Street are lifting Asian shares broadly, and foreign investors are snapping some local shares after a major selloff on Thursday, says Lee Jae-sun at Hana Investment & Securities. Lee said the resurgence of the virus in Seoul is likely to cap gains.

** On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.17%, the S&P 500 rose 0.32%, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.06%, on a tech-driven rally. ** On Kospi, SK Hynix is trading up 1.53% while Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are up 1.08% and 4.5% each. ** Foreigners were net buyers of 42.2 billion won worth of shares on the main board. ** The won was quoted at 1,185.5 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.12% higher than its previous close at 1,186.9. ** In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,185.0 per dollar, up 0.0% from the previous day, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,184.5. ** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 1.74%.

** The KOSPI has risen 3.96% so far this year, and gained 5.3% in the previous 30 trading sessions.

** The trading volume during the session in the KOSPI index was 344.99 million shares. Of the total traded issues of 902, the number of advancing shares was 370.

** The won has lost 2.5% against the dollar so far this year. ** In money and debt markets, September futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.04 points to 112.16.

** The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by 1.7 basis points to 0.829%, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 0.9 basis points to 1.388%. (Reporting by Cynthia Kim; Additional reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)