South Korea: Stocks edge up, won takes a breather

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index rose on Friday. The Korean won held steady on the local platform while bond yields rose.

At 01:14 GMT, the Kospi was up 3.10 points or 0.12 per cent at 2,540.25.

The won was quoted at 1,086 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform , 0.06 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,085.4.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,085.73 per US dollar, down 0.26 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,082.87 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.06 per cent. Japanese stocks weakened 0.32 per cent.

The Kospi is up around 25.2 per cent so far this year, and up by 2.52 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 99,108,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 865, the number of advancing shares was 421.

Foreigners were net sellers of 21,442 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 9.99 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,084.39 per dollar on November 23 2017 and low is 1,211.8 on January 3 2017.

In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.01 point to 108.04.

REUTERS