Seoul: Stocks end weaker as sentiment wanes on trade worries

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index ended lower on Wednesday as renewed Sino-US trade tensions and bleak China export data dented risk sentiment, while investors switched to safe-haven assets. The South Korean won and benchmark bond yield dropped. The stock market's benchmark Kospi ended down 8.98 points, or 0.41 per cent, at 2,168.01 points. Foreigners were net buyers of 9.9 billion won worth of shares on the main board.

China's latest trade data, which would normally be pored over for clues on how the world's second-largest economy is faring, has been overshadowed by worries that the US-China trade war is escalating, rather than nearing a resolution as many investors had expected.

China's exports unexpectedly shrank in April but imports surprised with their first increase in five months, painting a mixed picture of the economy. The won was quoted at 1,169.4 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.25 per cent lower than its previous close of 1,166.5.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,169.4 per US dollar, up 0.2 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,168.2 per dollar. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.71 per cent, after US stocks dropped. Japanese stocks fell 1.46 per cent.

The Kospi climbed 6.22 per cent so far this year, and fell 0.5 per cent in the previous 30 trading sessions.

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 448.44 million shares and, of the total traded issues of 891, the number of advancing shares was 334.

The won has lost 4.6 per cent against the US dollar this year.

The most liquid three-year South Korean treasury bond yield fell by 0.8 basis points to 1.715 per cent, while the benchmark 10-year yield fell by 0.9 basis points to 1.876 per cent.

REUTERS