Seoul: Stocks fall; won down on weaker demand for risk

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index weakened on Monday. The Korean won fell while bond yields rose. At 0630 GMT, the KOSPI was down 12.60 points or 0.50 per cent at 2,530.35.

The won was quoted at 1,120.32 per US dollar, down 0.08 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,116.75 per dollar.

The won was quoted at 1,120.6 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, where it ended the previous session at 1,117.1. The currency finished trade at a two-week low.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.14 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses.

Japanese stocks weakened 1.32 per cent.

The KOSPI is up around 25.5 per cent so far this year, and up by 5.67 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$1.5 trillion).

The trading volume during the session on the KOSPI index was 263.65 million shares, and of the total traded issues of 872, the number of advancing shares was 375.

Foreigners were net sellers of 63.62 billion won worth of shares.

The US dollar has risen 7.09 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,107.3 per dollar on March 27, 2017 and low is 1,211.8 on Jan 3, 2017.

In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.06 points to107.84. The Korean three-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.41 per cent compared with a previous close of 1.4 per cent, while the benchmark three-year Korean Treasury bond yielded 2.184 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.16 per cent.

REUTERS