Seoul: Won, stocks rise as greenback takes a pause

[SEOUL] The South Korean won and shares both strengthened early on Tuesday as the US US dollar took a breather as investors pocketed gains from the greenback's recent rally.

The influence pedalling scandal engulfing President Park Geun-hye's government had little impact on South Korean markets though opposition parties began collecting signatures for a parliamentary motion to impeach Ms Park, and were reviewing chances of successfully impeaching her.

The won stood at 1,175.0 against the US dollar as of 0223 GMT, up 1.0 per cent compared to Monday's close of 1,186.6.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) was up 0.8 per cent at 1,982.10 points.

"The greenback rallied for nearly ten days, which means that the global market has reacted too much and needed to cool down a bit," said Jeong My-young, a foreign exchange analyst at Samsung Futures.

Mr Jeong added that the won could strengthen to 1,160 in the near term, but it's hard to predict its future movement since the US dollar is expected to rebound soon.

Foreign investors were poised to be buyers, purchasing a net 70.0 billion Korean won (S$82.5 million) worth of Kospi shares near mid-session, buttressing the index.

Oil refiner S-Oil Corp rose 3.1 per cent and SK Innovation Co Ltd nearly 4 per cent as global oil prices rose.

Decliners outnumbered advancers 412 to 370.

December futures on three-year treasury bonds gained 0.11 point to 109.43.

REUTERS