Seoul: Stocks flat, won down after BOK stands pat on rate

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index was muted on Thursday while the won weakened against the dollar in the local platform and bond yields fell.

The Bank of Korea held its benchmark interest rate steady on worries over soft inflation amid trade tensions between the United States and China. The bank's decision had little impact on financial markets as was largely expected.

At 06:33 GMT, the Kospi was down 1.51 points or 0.06 per cent at 2,442.71.

The won was quoted at 1,069.5 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.3 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,066.3.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,068.74 per US dollar, down 0.27 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being asked at 1,054.45 per US dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.45 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with losses. Japanese stocks fell 0.12 per cent.

The Kospi is down around 0.9 per cent so far this year and has shed 0.49 per cent in the last 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 436,103,000 shares. Of the total traded issues of 888, the count of advancing shares was 415.

Foreigners were net buyers of 235,305 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has risen 0.26 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,053.55 per dollar on April 2 2018 and low is 1,098.4 on February 6 2018.

In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.03 points to 107.95.

The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.65 per cent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.156 per cent, lower than previous day's 2.17 per cent.

REUTERS