Seoul: Stocks end flat as Samsung Elec rally fizzles; won firms

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index ended little changed on Wednesday. The Korean won rose while bond yields fell. At 0633 GMT, the KOSPI was down 1.28 points or 0.05 per cent at 2,566.46. The index was up in early trade but reversed as market heavyweight Samsung Electronics gave up earlier gains sparked by its announcement of a stock split.

The won was quoted at 1,067.9 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.53 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,073.6.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,067.17 per US dollar, up 0.51 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,057.95 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.2 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses. Japanese stocks weakened 0.8 per cent.

The KOSPI is up around 4.1 per cent so far this year, and up by 3.98 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 396,901,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 886, the number of advancing shares was 333.

Foreigners were net sellers of 665,057 million won worth of shares. The US dollar has risen 0.08 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,056.67 per dollar on Jan 14, 2018 and low is 1,077.2 on Jan 23, 2018.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.09 points to 107.43. The South Korean three-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.65 per cent, unchanged from its previous close, while the benchmark three-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.274 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.30 per cent.

REUTERS