Seoul: Won posts seventh weekly loss on slowdown concerns; stocks fall

THE South Korean won posted a seventh straight weekly loss against the US dollar and slid to its weakest level since 2009 on Friday (Sep 23), as investors worried that the US Federal Reserve’s aggressive approach to tame inflation could trigger a recession. The won was quoted at 1,409.3 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, flat from its previous close of 1,409.7. For the week, the won lost 1.5 per cent against the greenback.

Among equities, the benchmark KOSPI was down 42.31 points, or 1.81 per cent, at 2,290.00, as of 0630 GMT. The index lost 3.9 per cent this week, marking the sharpest weekly decline since mid-June. The country’s central bank said it agreed to form a currency swap with the National Pension Service to sate the fund’s US dollar needs, to put a floor under a rapidly weakening won.

Among heavyweights, technology giant Samsung Electronics rose 0.18 per cent and peer SK Hynix fell 2.91 per cent, while battery maker LG Energy Solution fell 5.73 per cent.

The trading volume during the session in the KOSPI index was 438.26 million shares. Of the total traded issues of 931, the number of advancing shares was 110.

Foreigners were net sellers of shares worth 190.2 billion won on the main board. In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,409.7 per US dollar, down 0.4 per cent from the previous day, while in non-deliverable forward trading its 1-month contract was quoted at 1,408.8.

The KOSPI dropped 23.09 per cent so far this year, and lost 6.4 per cent in the previous 30 trading sessions.

The won has lost 15.6 per cent against the US dollar so far this year.

In money and debt markets, December futures on 3-year treasury bonds fell 0.22 points to 101.83.

The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by 10.5 basis points to 4.168 per cent, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 16.3 basis points to 4.150 per cent. REUTERS