[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index rose on Tuesday. The Korean won barely moved while bond yields fell.

At 0632 GMT, the KOSPI was up 9.81 points or 0.41 per cent at 2,395.19. The index was supported by market heavyweight chipmakers. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix rose 4 per cent and 4.3 per cent, respectively, on large foreign purchases.

The won was quoted at 1,084.5 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.01 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,084.6.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,084.03 per US dollar, down 0.22 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,074.75 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.97 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with gains. Japanese stocks weakened 0.65 per cent.

The KOSPI is down around 3.3 per cent so far this year, and down by 3.33 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 417,091,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 883, the number of advancing shares was 261.

Foreigners were net buyers of 330,033 million won worth of shares. The US dollar has risen 1.66 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,056.67 per dollar on January 14 2018 and low is 1,098.4 on February 6 2018.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.11 points to 107.58. The South Korean three-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.65 per cent, while the benchmark three-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.282 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.30 per cent.

REUTERS