Seoul: Stocks edge down, won a little weaker

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

At 01:22 GMT, the Kospi was down 8.20 points or 0.33 per cent at 2,491.55.

The won was quoted at 1,071.1 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.07 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,071.9.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,071.4 per US dollar, down 0.2 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,062.7 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.20 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses.

Japanese stocks weakened 0.39 per cent.

The Kospi is up around 1.3 per cent so far this year, and up by 1.75 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 150,434,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 880, the number of advancing shares was 349.

Foreigners were net sellers of 167,752 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has risen 0.47 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,059 per dollar on Jan. 8, 2018 and low is 1,072.95 on Jan 9, 2018.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.01 points to 107.72.

The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.66 per cent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.18 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.17 per cent.

REUTERS