South Korea: Stocks, won edge up in sedate start to week

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index rose on Monday. The Korean won advanced and bond yields climbed.

At 01:17 GMT, the Kospi was up 2.67 points or 0.11 per cent at 2,500.19.

The won was quoted at 1,061.9 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform , 0.08 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,062.7.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,060.5 per dollar, up 0.11 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it fetched 1,052.85 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.17 per cent, after US stocks posted strong gains on Friday. Japanese stocks rose 0.89 per cent.

The Kospi is up around 1.2 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 percent and the market capitalisation is 1,242.04 trillion won.

The trading volume during the session on the Kospi index was 94,277,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 880, the number of advancing shares was 303.

Foreigners were net buyers of 84,539 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 0.56 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,060.35 per dollar on January 2 2018 and low is 1,068.3 on January 4 2018.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds were unchanged at 107.95.

The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.66 per cent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.109 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.10 per cent.

REUTERS