Seoul: Stocks claw back some of last week's losses; won firms

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index recovered some of last week's heavy losses on Monday. The Korean won marked gains in the local platform and bond yields also rose.

At 0632 GMT, the KOSPI was up 21.61 points or 0.9 per cent at 2,385.38. The benchmark index rose on bargain hunting among investors after a near 8 per cent loss over the past seven sessions.

The won was quoted at 1,084.6 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.69 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,092.1. The currency was largely buoyed by exporters' dollar-selling ahead of Chinese New Year holiday.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,083.45 per US dollar, up 0.12 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,074.15 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 1.00 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with gains.

The KOSPI is down around 4.2 per cent so far this year, and down by 2.99 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 344,787,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 882, the number of advancing shares was 361. Foreigners were net sellers of 80,236 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has risen 1.6 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,056.67 per dollar on Jan 14, 2018 and low is 1,098.4 on Feb 6, 2018.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.04 points to 107.51. The South Korean three-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.65 per cent, while the benchmark three-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.3 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.28 per cent.

REUTERS