Seoul: Stocks ease on foreign selloff; won edges down

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index weakened on Monday. The won slumped against the dollar while bond yields rose. At 0632 GMT, the KOSPI was down 2.23 points or 0.09 per cent at 2,474.10.

North Korea-exposed shares, which surged in early trade on news that Pyongyang said it will suspend nuclear and missile tests immediately and abolish a nuclear test site, showed mixed movements later in the session.

The won was quoted at 1,069 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.16 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,067.3.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,068.37 per US dollar, up 0.16 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,051.38 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.33 per cent, after U.S. stocks ended the previous session with losses. Japanese stocks weakened 0.33 per cent.

The KOSPI is up around 0.4 per cent so far this year, and down by 0.69 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 690,510,000 shares and, of the total traded issues of 884, the number of advancing shares was 400.

Foreigners were net sellers of 304,598 million won worth of shares. The US dollar has risen 0.19 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,053.55 per dollar on Apr 2, 2018 and low is 1,098.4 on Feb 6, 2018.

In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.12 points to 107.66.

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 2.227 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.20 per cent.

REUTERS