Seoul: Stocks end lower; won hits 2-week closing low

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index ended lower, while the South Korean won hit a two-week closing low as most riskier assets were affected after US President Donald Trump pulled out of an international nuclear deal with Iran.

At 0632 GMT, the KOSPI ended down 5.83 points or 0.24 per cent at 2,443.98. The won was quoted at 1,080.9 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.41 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,076.5. The currency marked its weakest closing since April 26.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,079.7 per US dollar, down 0.21 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being asked at 1,064.05 per dollar. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.18 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with losses. Japanese stocks weakened 0.44 per cent.

The KOSPI is down around 0.7 per cent so far this year, and climbed 1.37 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 581,993,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 883, the number of advancing shares was 408. Foreigners were net sellers of 226,863 million won worth of shares. The US dollar has risen 1.25 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 Feb 6 this year.

In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds dropped 0.03 points to 107.45. The Korean three-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.65 per cent, while the benchmark three-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.308 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.31 per cent.

REUTERS