Seoul: Stocks fall; won up

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index weakened on Tuesday. The Korean won rose and bond yields rose. At 0632 GMT, the KOSPI was down 3.71 points or 0.15 per cent at 2,526.64.

The won was quoted at 1,117.49 per US dollar, up 0.13 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,114.5 per dollar.

The won was quoted at 1,118.1 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, where it ended the previous session at 1,120.6.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.23 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild gains. Japanese stocks were flat.

The KOSPI is up around 24.9 per cent so far this year, and up by 5.93 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 283,653,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 875, the number of advancing shares was 372.

Foreigners were net sellers of 300.32 billion won (S$365.98 million) worth of shares.

The US dollar has risen 7.36 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 January 3 2017.

In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.05 points to 107.78.

The Korean three-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.42 per cent compared with a previous close of 1.41 per cent, while the benchmark three-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.196 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.18 per cent.

REUTERS