Seoul: Stocks rise for 3rd session as risk appetite improves

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index gained for a third consecutive session on Tuesday on positive manufacturing data from the world's top two economies. The won weakened, and the benchmark bond yield fell. ** The KOSPI index rose 8.90 points, or 0.41 per cent, to 2,177.18. Shares in Samsung BioLogics soared 6.6 per cent after the firm signed a contract with U.S. biotechnology company Cytodyn.

Foreigners were net buyers of 276.2 billion won worth of shares on the main board. The won was quoted at 1,136.4 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.24 per cent lower than its previous close at 1,133.7.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,135.8 per US dollar, down 0.3 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,135.6 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.15 per cent, after US stocks rose. Japanese stocks fell 0.02 per cent. The Kospi has risen 6.67 per cent so far this year, and fell 1.3 per cent in the previous 30 trading sessions.

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 250.94 million shares and, of the total traded issues of 897, the number of advancing shares was 432. The won has lost 1.8 per cent against the US dollar this year.

In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.08 points to 109.65, while the three-month Certificate of Deposit rate was quoted at 1.90 per cent. The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield fell by 1.7 basis points to 1.709 per cent, while the benchmark 10-year yield declined by 0.5 basis points to 1.859 per cent. 

REUTERS