Seoul: Stocks extend gains, won strengthens

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index extended gains on Thursday. The Korean won edged higher in the local platform against the dollar.

At 0630 GMT, the KOSPI closed higher 17.08 points or 0.71 per cent at 2,436.37. The benchmark index extended gains following gains in Chinese stock markets. Seoul's announcement that South Korea and North Korea agreed to hold summit in April, also cheered market sentiment.

The won was quoted at 1,065.9 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.46 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,070.8.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,064.44 per US dollar, down 0.08 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it fetched 1,051.8 per dollar. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.28 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with losses. Japanese stocks rose 0.61 per cent.

The KOSPI is down around 2.0 per cent so far this year, and down by 2.35 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 328,140,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 887, the number of advancing shares was 447. Foreigners were net sellers of 271,705 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 0.18 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,056.67 per dollar on Jan 14, 2018 and low is 1,098.4 on Feb 6, 2018. In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.01 points to 107.68. 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 2.228 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.22 per cent.

REUTERS