Seoul: Stocks close at record high; won weaker

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index rose on Monday. The Korean won edged down while bond yields rose.

At 0633 GMT, the KOSPI was up 23.43 points or 0.91 per cent at 2,598.19, an all-time closing high. The benchmark index has climbed for five consecutive sessions. Investor confidence remained strong, especially in tech and finance-related shares after chipmaker SK Hynix posted its biggest-ever quarterly earnings last week.

The won was quoted at 1,065.6 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.16 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,063.9.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,064.87 per US dollar, down 0.11 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,055.6 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.12 per cent, after U.S. stocks ended the previous session with gains. Japanese stocks weakened 0.01 per cent.

The KOSPI is up around 4.3 per cent so far this year, and up by 4.62 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 433,309,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 886, the number of advancing shares was 550.

Foreigners were net buyers of 321,426 million won worth of shares. The US dollar has fallen 0.14 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 1,077.2 on Jan 23, 2018.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.17 points to 107.46. 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 2.279 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.22 per cent.

REUTERS