South Korea: Stocks calm with slight gains, won edges up

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index rose on Friday. The Korean won also edged up and bond yields rose.

At 01.17 GMT, the KOSPI was up 2.61 points or 0.10 per cent at 2,518.42.

The won was quoted at 1,069.6 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform , 0.1 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,070.7.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,068.3 per US dollar, up 0.12 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,059.55 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.10 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses . Japanese stocks rose 0.25 per cent.

The Kospi is up about 2.0 per cent so far this year, and up 0.57 per cent in the last 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 124,155,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 876, the number of advancing shares was 469.

Foreigners were net sellers of 12,422 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has risen 0.18 percent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,056.67 per dollar on Jan. 14 2018 and low is 1,073.2 on Jan 11, 2018.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.06 points to 107.73.

The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.65 per cent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.183 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.17 per cent.

REUTERS