Seoul: Stocks reverse losses; won rises against US dollar

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index erased early losses on Tuesday as domestic institutions' purchases gave support. The Korean won edged up on the local platform, while bond yields also rose. At 0632 GMT, the KOSPI was up 10.49 points, or 0.42 per cent, at 2,485.52.

The won was quoted at 1,068.6 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.28 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,071.6. In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,067.9 per U.S. dollar, up 0.43 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,056.35 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.15 per cent, after U.S. stocks ended the previous session with losses. Japanese stocks weakened 0.47 per cent.

The KOSPI is up around 0.3 per cent so far this year, and up by 3.56 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 286,351,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 886, the number of advancing shares was 406.

Foreigners were net sellers of 140,892 million won worth of shares. The US dollar has risen 0.14 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,056.67 per dollar on Jan 14, 2018 and low is 1,098.4 on Feb 6, 2018.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.01 points to 107.82. The South Korean three-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.65 per cent, while the benchmark three-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.288 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.28 per cent.

REUTERS