Seoul: Stocks, won falter on investor worries after US government shutdown

[SEOUL]South Korea's KOSPI stock index weakened on Monday. The South Korean won declined on the local platform while bond yields rose.

At 0630GMT, the KOSPI was down 18.15 points or 0.72 per cent at 2,502.11. The benchmark index slumped as investors turned away from riskier assets following the US government shutdown.

The won was quoted at 1,070.1 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.39 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,065.9.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,069.47 per US dollar, down 0.22 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,060.95 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.1 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild gains. Japanese stocks rose 0.03 per cent.

The KOSPI is up around 2.1 per cent so far this year, and up by 0.4 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 311,820,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 883, the number of advancing shares was 416.

Foreigners were net sellers of 175,322 million won worth of shares. The US dollar has risen 0.29 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,056.67 per dollar on Jan 14 and low is 1,073.2 on Jan 11.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.04 points to 107.73. 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 2.193 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.17 per cent.

REUTERS