Seoul: Stocks fall on disappointing China manufacturing data

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index ended lower on Tuesday hit by disappointing China April factory growth but partially recovered in the afternoon as foreigners turn net buyers. The South Korean won also weakened while the benchmark bond yield fell.

The Seoul stock market's main Kospi fell 12.84 points, or 0.58 per cent, to 2,203.59 points. For the month, the Kospi rose 2.94 per cent. Foreigners were net buyers of 42.5 billion won worth of shares on the main board.

The won was quoted at 1,168.2 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.83 per cent lower than its previous close at 1,158.5. In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,168.3 per US dollar, down 0.8 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,167.0 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.56 per cent, after U.S. stocks rose .

The Kospi has risen 7.96 per cent so far this year, and rose 1.7 per cent in the previous 30 trading sessions.

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 374.76 million shares and, of the total traded issues of 885, the number of advancing shares was 370.

The won has lost 4.5 per cent against the US dollar this year.

In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.08 points to 109.63, while the 3-month Certificate of Deposit rate was quoted at 1.84 per cent.

The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield fell by 1.2 basis points to 1.700 per cent, while the benchmark 10-year yield fell by 1.8 basis points to 1.845 per cent. 

REUTERS