Seoul: Stocks end flat, won edges up

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index weakened slightly on Monday. The Korean won erased earlier losses and gained a bit in the local platform and bond yields rose.

At 0630 GMT, the KOSPI was down 0.19 points or 0.01 per cent at 2,481.88. The won was quoted at 1,088.5 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.12 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,089.8.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,087.81 per US dollar, up 0.01 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,080.7 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.45 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild gains. Japanese stocks rose 1.55 per cent.

The KOSPI is up around 22.5 per cent so far this year, and down by 2.97 per cent in the past 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 320,277,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 878, the number of advancing shares was 303. Foreigners were net sellers of 168,056 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 9.82 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,075.71 per dollar on Nov 29, 2017 and low is 1,211.8 on Jan 3, 2017.

In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.05 points to 108.29. The Korean three-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.66 per cent compared with a previous close of 1.66 per cent, while the benchmark three-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.088 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.08 per cent.

REUTERS