Seoul: Stocks rebound, won firms slightly

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index rose on Friday. The Korean won edged up and bond yields rose. At 0120 GMT, the Kospi was up 13.16 points or 0.53 per cent at 2,479.62. The benchmark index rebounded after slipping due to heavy profit-taking by local institutions on Thursday.

The won was quoted at 1,062.3 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform , 0.01 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,062.2.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,061 per US dollar, up 0.07 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,052.75 per US dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.40 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild gains . Japanese stocks rose 0.31 per cent.

The Kospi is flat so far this year, and down by 2.42 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$91.55 trillion).

The trading volume during the session on the Kospi index was 95,377,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 875, the number of advancing shares was 470.

Foreigners were net buyers of 1,032 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 0.55 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,060.35 per US dollar on Jan 2, 2018 and the low is 1,068.3 on Jan 4, 2018.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.02 points to 107.89.

The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.66, unchanged from its previous close, while the benchmark 3-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.148 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.14 per cent.

REUTERS