Seoul: Stocks slip; Samsung Elec skids on profit-booking

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index weakened on Friday. The Korean won slumped in the local platform, while bond yields fell.

At 01.04 GMT, the Kospi was down 7.12 points, or 0.29 per cent, at 2,430.40.

Tech giant Samsung Electronics tipped a surprise record first-quarter profit on strong chip margins and the early launch of its flagship Galaxy S9 smartphone. Shares of the company, however, were down 1.4 per cent as investors booked profit after nearly 4 per cent rise in the previous session.

The won was quoted at 1,065.4 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform , 0.54 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,059.7.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,064.57 per US dollar, down 0.28 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,049.65 per US dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.26 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with gains. Japanese stocks weakened 0.2 per cent.

The Kospi is down around 1.2 per cent so far this year, and up by 0.32 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 147,154,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 880, the number of advancing shares was 282.

Foreigners were net sellers of 130,290 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 0.17 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 rose 0.04 points to 107.88.

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 2.166 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.18 per cent.

REUTERS