Seoul: Stocks erase losses as institutions buy; won slightly down

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index ended in positive territory on Thursday as institutional investors turned to net buyers towards end-session, erasing earlier losses. The South Korean won was weaker against the dollar on the local platform while bond yields also fell.

At 0630 GMT, the KOSPI was up 6.30 points or 0.25 per cent at 2,492.38. The won was quoted at 1,065.4 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.08 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,064.6.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,064.99 per US dollar, down 0.14 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,054.35 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.15 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses. Japanese stocks rose 0.12 per cent.

The KOSPI is up around 0.8 per cent so far this year, and up by 3.44 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 338,119,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 886, the number of advancing shares was 408.

Foreigners were net sellers of 42,470 million won worth of shares. The US dollar has fallen 0.13 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 1,098.4 on Feb 6, 2018.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.03 points to 107.84.

The Korean three-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.65 per cent, while the benchmark three-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.268 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.27 per cent.

REUTERS