Seoul: Stocks hover near 4-week high, won firms
[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index crept higher on Thursday, hovering near a four-week high hit in the previous session, when it jumped more than one per cent. The Korean won and bond yields also rose.
At 01.04 GMT, the Kospi was up 3.90 points or 0.16 per cent at 2,483.88.
The won was quoted at 1,066.8 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.18 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,068.7.
In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,066.4 per US dollar, down 0.21 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it fetched 1,049.95 per US dollar.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.28 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild gains. Japanese stocks rose 0.79 per cent.
The Kospi is up around 0.5 per cent so far this year, and down by 3.25 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 262,809,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 879, the number of advancing shares was 363.
Foreigners were net buyers of 26,347 million won worth of shares.
The US dollar has fallen 0.02 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,053.55 per US dollar on April 2, 2018 and low is 1,098.4 on Feb 6, 2018.
In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.05 points to 107.76.
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 2.207 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.20 per cent.
REUTERS
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