Seoul: Stocks rally from 1-year low, won slips

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index rebounded on Tuesday from its lowest close in more than one year, as overnight gains on Wall Street boosted positive sentiment amid worries about mounting trade tensions between the United States and its trading partners. The won inched lower, while bond yields rose.

At 0130GMT, the Kospi was up 7.92 points or 0.35 per cent at 2,279.46. Shares of Samsung Electronics rose 1.8 per cent, while SK Hynix and Samsung BioLogics climbed 2.6 per cent and 3.1 per cent, respectively.

The index fell to its lowest close since May 2017 on Monday.

The won was quoted at 1,121.3 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.12 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,120.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,120.47 per US dollar, down 0.23 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being asked at 1,101.75 per US dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.7 per cent. Japanese stocks were down 0.3 per cent.

The Kospi is down around 7.9 per cent so far this year, and down by 7.65 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$1.52 million).

The trading volume during the session on the Kospi index was 121,667,000 shares and, of the total traded issues of 882, the number of advancing shares was 439. Foreigners were net buyers of 28,571 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has risen 5.07 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 1,125.17 on June 27 2018.

In money and debt markets, September futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.04 points to 108.06.

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 2.13 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.13 per cent.

REUTERS