Seoul: Stocks retreat, won holds steady

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index reversed earlier gains and edged down on Wednesday, while the won held steady against the dollar in the local platform and bond yields fell.

At 0632 GMT, the KOSPI was down 6.52 points or 0.27 per cent at 2,444.22. The won was quoted at 1,066.3 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.01 per cent firmer than its previous close of 1,066.4.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,064.92 per US dollar, down 0.1 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being asked at 1,049.2 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.01 per cent, after U.S. stocks ended the previous session with gains. Japanese stocks weakened 0.49 per cent.

The KOSPI is down around 0.7 per cent so far this year, and down by 0.28 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 346,729,000 shares, and of the total 889 issues traded, the number of advancing shares was 448.

Foreigners were net sellers of 22,549 million won worth of shares. The US dollar has fallen 0.14 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,053.55 per dollar on April 2, 2018 and low is 1,098.4 on February 6, 2018.

In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.07 points to 107.92. The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.65 per cent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.161 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.19 per cent.

REUTERS