Seoul: Stocks edge down, won rises further

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index weakened on Tuesday, while the won became stronger against the greenback in the local platform and bond yields rose. At 0632 GMT, the KOSPI was down 3.72 points or 0.15 per cent at 2,453.77.

The won was quoted at 1,067 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.66 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,074. The currency extended gains, erasing losses from Monday.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,066.12 per US dollar, up 0.33 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,050.1 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.25 per cent, while US stocks ended the previous session with mild gains. Japanese stocks rose 0.06 per cent.

The KOSPI is down around 0.4 per cent so far this year, and has fallen 3.47 per cent in the previous 30 days.

The current price-to-earnings ratio is 12.10, the dividend yield is 1.28 per cent and the market capitalisation is 1,242.04 trillion won.

The trading volume during the session on the KOSPI index was 389,176,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 885, the number of advancing shares was 436.

Foreigners were net sellers of 274,675 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 0.03 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,053.55 per dollar on Apr 2 and low is 1,098.4 on Feb 6.

In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.02 points to 107.84. The Korean three-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.65 per cent, while the benchmark three-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.181 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.17 per cent.

BLOOMBERG