Seoul: Stocks fall marginally; won steady

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index weakened slightly on Thursday. The Korean won was steady while bond yields fell. At 0630 GMT, the KOSPI was down 1.83 points or 0.07 per cent at 2,550.57. The won was quoted at 1,114.47 per US dollar, down 0.1 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,112.05 per dollar.

The won was quoted at 1,115.6 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, unchanged from the previous session at 1,115.6 at close.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.21 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild gains. Japanese stocks weakened 0.20 per cent.

The KOSPI is up around 26.0 per cent so far this year, and up by 5.64 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 285,527,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 874, the number of advancing shares was 474.

Foreigners were net sellers of 61.88 billion won (S$75.5 million) worth of shares.

The USdollar has fallen 7.61 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,107.3 per dollar on March 27 and the low is 1,211.8 on Jany 3. The benchmark three-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.148 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.151 per cent.

REUTERS