Seoul: Stocks reverse losses, won edges up

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index rose on Monday, swinging out of negative territory earlier in the session. The Korean won rose sightly in the local platform and bond yields also rose. At 0630 GMT, the KOSPI was up 7.49 points or 0.30 per cent at 2,471.49.

The won was quoted at 1,092.3 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.09 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,093.3.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,091.35 per U.S. dollar, up 0.05 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,085.75 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.52 per cent, after U.S. stocks ended the previous session with mild gains. Japanese stocks rose 0.56 per cent.

The KOSPI is up around 21.6 per cent so far this year, and down by 1.31 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 237,574,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 876, the number of advancing shares was 487. Foreigners were net sellers of 159,080 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 9.53 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,075.71 per dollar on Nov 29, 2017 and low is 1,211.8 on Jan 3, 2017.

In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.01 points to 108.25. The Korean three-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.66 per cent compared with a previous close of 1.66 per cent, while the benchmark three-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.083 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.08 per cent.

REUTERS