Seoul: Stocks end higher on foreign buying; won steady

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index ended higher on Friday as foreign investors continued to buy stocks amid persistent fears over a trade war between the United States and China.

The Korean won was steady, while bond yields fell.

At0633 GMT, the Kospi closed up 12.36 points or 0.51 per cent at 2,455.07. For the week, the index gained one per cent.

The won was quoted at 1,069.5 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, steady compared with its previous close at 1,069.5.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,068.41 per US dollar, up 0.15 per cent from the previous session, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,054.15 per US dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.13 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild gains. Japanese stocks rose 0.55 per cent.

The Kospi is down around one per cent so far this year, and slipped 0.63 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 391,735,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 887, the number of advancing shares was 457.

Foreigners were net buyers of 52,948 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar rose 0.19 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,053.55 per US dollar on April 2 and low was 1,098.4 on Feb 6 this year.

The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.65 per cent compared with a previous close of 1.65 per cent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.153 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.16 per cent.

REUTERS