Seoul: Won reaches weakest intraday level in nearly 4 yrs; shares slip

[SEOUL] The South Korean won fell to a nearly four-year low against the dollar on Monday, weighed down by dollar demand linked to Tesco's move to sell its largest overseas unit, Homeplus of South Korea.

The South Korean won closed local trade down 0.9 per cent to 1,203.7 per dollar, after sliding as much as 1.1 per cent to 1,207.1, the weakest intraday level since Oct 4, 2011.

Tesco has picked private South Korean equity firm MBK Partners as preferred bidder to buy Homeplus for as much as US$6.6 billion.

Meanwhile, the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) edged down 0.2 per cent to 1,883.22 points in choppy trading on continuous foreign selling in local stocks.

Foreigners were net sellers for a 23rd consecutive session, the longest such streak since July 2008. During that period, they have sold a net 4.69 trillion won (S$5.6 billion) of shares on the main board, preliminary data showed.

REUTERS