Seoul: Stocks climb on President Moon's China visit, won up

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index rose on Wednesday while won gained against the dollar in the local platform and bond yields fell.

At 0632 GMT, the KOSPI was up 19.55 points, or 0.79 per cent, at 2,480.55. The benchmark index rose to a more than one-week closing high as President Moon Jae In's visit to China this week was expected to break the ice after a furious row over Seoul's deployment of a US anti-missile system, sparking strong investor appetite.

The won was quoted at 1,090.7 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.16 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,092.4.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,089.46 per US dollar, up 0.18 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,083.81 per US dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.52 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild gains. Japanese stocks weakened 0.47 per cent.

The KOSPI is up over 22 per cent so far this year, and down by 2.47 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 251,104,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 876, the number of advancing shares was 566. Foreigners were net sellers of 204,859 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 9.68 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,075.71 per US dollar on 29 Nov and low is 1,211.8 on 3 Jan 3.

In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.04 points to 108.32.

The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.66 per cent, compared with the previous close of 1.66 per cent, while the benchmark three-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.075 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.08 per cent.

REUTERS