Seoul: Won, stocks calm; cautious ahead of Trump-Abe summit

[SEOUL] The South Korean won remained mostly unchanged on Thursday as cautious market players held their positions ahead of US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's summit this week, which is expected to have a critical sway on financial markets.

The won stood at 1,146.8 to the US dollar as of 0214 GMT, little changed compared with Wednesday's close of 1,147.2.

"The Japanese yen may move wildly after the results from the summit, and the won may also react sensitively to the currency's movement," said Ha Keon-Hyeong, a foreign exchange analyst at Shinhan Investment Corp.

South Korean shares were also nearly unchanged with the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) at 2,068.81 points.

Offshore investors were set to be net sellers for three consecutive sessions, offloading 55.5 billion Korean won (S$68.65 million) worth of Kospi shares near mid-session.

Steelmaker Posco climbed as much as 2.2 per cent while chipmaker SK Hynix slided as much as 3.5 per cent.

Decliners and advancers were almost even by 408 to 377.

March futures on three-year treasury bonds gained 0.03 point to 109.61.

REUTERS