South Korea: Stocks, won down on Wall Street losses

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index weakened on Wednesday. The Korean won fell while bond yields were flat.

At 01.53 GMT, the Kospi was down 6.58 points or 0.26 per cent at 2,503.54.

The won was quoted at 1,091.3 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.5 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,085.8 as risk sentiment soured following a third straight session of decline in the S&P 500 index .

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,091.39 per US dollar, down 0.44 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,086.65 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.26 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses . Japanese stocks weakened 0.73 per cent.

The Kospi is up around 23.9 per cent so far this year, and down by 0.79 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 224,395,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 871, the number of advancing shares was 378.

Foreigners were net sellers of 65,235 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 9.52 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,075.71 per dollar on November 29 2017 and low is 1,211.8 on January 3 2017.

In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.04 points to 108.21.

REUTERS