South Korean stocks traded higher late Monday morning, led by strong performance by battery shares.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 13.16 points, or 0.51 percent, to 2,596.43 as of 11:20 a.m.EV battery makers led the uptick on Tesla's robust third-quarter earnings report last week.POSCO Future M mounted 3.3 percent and Samsung SDI jumped 5.28 percent.Samsung Electronics, the world's largest memory chip maker, rose 2.5 percent, and LG Display increased 1.48 percent.Top oil refinery SK Innovation jumped 4.81 percent and major chemicals maker LG Chem gained 3.88 percent.But SK hynix, the world's second-largest memory chip manufacturer, retreated 1.09 percent.Korea Zinc mounted 3.99 percent after the company announced that it has secured an 11.26 percent stake in a buyback offer aimed at defending its management control against the coalition of its largest shareholder Young Poong Corp. and MBK Partners.The local currency was trading at 1,387.8 won against the U.S. dol lar, up 1.2 won from the previous session.Source: Yonhap News Agency