Seoul: Stocks slump, won weakens, but both post weekly gains

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index weakened on Friday after rising 1.3 per cent during the past two sessions, while the South Korean won lost ground on the local platform due to dollar strength, and bond yields rose.

At 0632 GMT, the KOSPI was down 9.77 points or 0.39 per cent at 2,476.33. For the week, the index gained 0.9 per cent, its second straight weekly gain.

The won was quoted at 1,067.3 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.6 per cent lower than its previous close at 1,061.5. The currency gained 0.2 per cent on a weekly basis.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,066.47 per US dollar, down 0.02 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,052.1 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 1.09 per cent, while US stocks ended the previous session with losses. Japanese stocks weakened 0.13 per cent.

The KOSPI is up around 0.8 per cent so far this year, and up by 2.18 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 526,134,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 887, the number of advancing shares was 525.

Foreigners were net sellers of 488,027 million won worth of shares. ** In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.06 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 2.201 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.20 per cent.

REUTERS