South Korea: Stocks tread water, won strengthens on dollar weakness

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index held largely steady on Tuesday. The Korean won gained against the dollar on the local platform, while bond yields also rose.

At 01:09 GMT, the Kospi was down 0.68 points or 0.03 per cent at 2,456.81.

The won was quoted at 1,069.7 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform , 0.4 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,074. The currency was supported by broader dollar weakness but analysts said counter remittance of dividends by foreign investors could weigh down the won later in the session.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,068.95 per US dollar, up 0.07 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it fetched 1,053.75 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.08 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild gains. Japanese stocks weakened 0.08 per cent.

The Kospi is down around 0.4 per cent so far this year, and down by 3.47 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 132,159,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 874, the number of advancing shares was 393.

Foreigners were net sellers of 84,505 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has risen 0.24 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,053.55 per dollar on April 2 2018 and low is 1,098.4 on February 6 2018.

In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.02 points to 107.84.

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 2.185 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.17 per cent.

REUTERS