South Korea: Stocks edge up, won tentative; BOK holds rates as expected

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index rose on Thursday. The Korean won was flat while bond yields fell.

At 01.03 GMT, the Kospi was up 8.79 points or 0.35 per cent at 2,524.22.

The won was quoted at 1,069.4 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform from its previous close at 1,069.3.

The currency barely moved after the Bank of Korea decided to hold its interest rates in line with expectations.

In offshore trade the won was quoted at 1,068.27 per US dollar, down 0.18 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,060.15 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 gains. Japanese stocks rose 0.88 per cent.

The Kospi is up around 1.9 per cent so far this year, and up by 1.62 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 91,570,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 878, the number of advancing shares was 416.

Foreigners were net sellers of 9,119 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has risen 0.18 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year so far was 1,056.67 per dollar on January 14 2018 and low was 1,073.2 reached on January 11.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.03 points to 107.67.

The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.65 per cent compared with a previous close of 1.66 per cent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.209 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.23 per cent.

REUTERS