South Korea: Stocks dip, won muted after FX official's comments

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index eased slightly on Thursday. The Korean won barely moved in the local platform while bond yields fell.

At 02:16 GMT, the Kospi was down 4.27 points or 0.17 per cent at 2,536.24.

The won was quoted at 1,089 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.01 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,089.1.

The currency pared earlier gains after a senior South Korean official said some speculators in the foreign exchange market are ignoring the government's efforts to stabilise financial markets.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,089.1 per US dollar, down 0.37 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,085.4 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.15 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses. Japanese stocks rose 0.48 per cent.

The Kospi is up around 25.4 per cent so far this year, and up by 3.35 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 144,878,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 867, the number of advancing shares was 404.

Foreigners were net sellers of 25,144 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 9.71 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,086.18 per dollar on November 22 2017 and low is 1,211.8 on January 3 2017.

In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.03 points to 107.97.

REUTERS