Seoul: Stocks edge up, won down on foreign selling and upbeat Fed

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index ticked up on Thursday, while the won slumped on the local platform and bond yields fell.

At 0630 GMT, the Kospi was up 2.08 points or 0.08 per cent at 2,568.54. The won was quoted at 1,071.9 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.37 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,067.9. The currency was pressured by foreign selling of stocks and on a sturdier US dollar thanks to an upbeat Federal Reserve.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,070.99 per US dollar, down 0.17 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it fetched 1,061.2 per US dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.11 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with gains. Japanese stocks rose 1.68 per cent.

The Kospi is up around 4 per cent so far this year, and up by 3.40 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 (S$1.52 trillion).

The trading volume during the session on the Kospi index was 588,190,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 885, the number of advancing shares was 508.

Foreigners were net sellers of 272,520 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has risen 0.43 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,056.67 per US dollar on Jan 14 and low is 1,077.2 on Jan 23.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.08 point to 107.5.

The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.65 per cent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.251 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.27 per cent.

REUTERS