Seoul: Stocks reverse gains; won edges down

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index weakened on Tuesday. The Korean won fell in the local platform and bond yields fell. At 0630 GMT, the KOSPI was down 6.32 points or 0.25 per cent at 2,527.67.

The won was quoted at 1,100.05 per US dollar, down 0.62 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,097.1 per US dollar.

The won was quoted at 1,100.6 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, where it ended the previous session at 1,097.5. The currency erased its earlier gains as foreign demand simmered down during the session.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.09 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses.

Japanese stocks weakened 0.6 per cent.

The KOSPI is up around 25.0 per cent so far this year, and up by 6.78 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 400,757,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 874, the number of advancing shares was 443.

Foreigners were net buyers of 203,855 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 8.8 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,093.1 per US dollar on Nov 17, 2017 and low is 1,211.8 on Jan 3, 2017.

In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.07 points to 107.93.

The Korean three-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.45 per cent compared with a previous close of 1.45 per cent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.16 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.18 per cent.

REUTERS