South Korea: Stocks slump, won edges down

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index weakened on Thursday. The Korean won fell on the local platform while bond yields rose.

At 01.18 GMT, the Kospi was down 9.42 points or 0.38 per cent at 2,464.95.

The won was quoted at 1,095.3 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform , 0.15 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,093.7.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,094.25 per US dollar, down 0.12 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was transacted at 1,089.8 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was off 0.03 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses. Japanese stocks rose 1.19 per cent.

The Kospi is up around 22.1 per cent so far this year, and down 0.73 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 134,233,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 869, the number of advancing shares was 146.

Foreigners were net sellers of 119,394 million won worth of shares.

The U.S dollar has fallen 9.28 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,075.71 per dollar on November 29 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 points to 108.24.

The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.66 per cent, flat from the previous close, while the benchmark 3-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.096 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.08 per cent.

REUTERS