Seoul: Stocks rise on hopes of smaller US tariffs; won flat
[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index rose to a more than one-week closing high on Thursday. The South Korean won held flat in the local platform while bond yields fell.
At 0633 GMT, the KOSPI was up 31.26 points, or 1.30 per cent, at 2,433.08. The benchmark stock index rose as investment sentiment revived on hopes of smaller U.S. trade tariffs. The won was quoted at 1,070.2 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.1 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,069.1.
In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,069.14 per US dollar, down 0.25 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being asked at 1,060.6 per dollar.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.98 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses. Japanese stocks rose 0.54 per cent.
The KOSPI is down around 2.7 per cent so far this year, and up by 4.70 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 390,663,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 886, the number of advancing shares was 545.
Foreigners were net sellers of 176,282 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 1,056.67 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 rose 0.03 points to 107.72. The Korean three-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.65 per cent, while the benchmark three-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.29 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.30 per cent.
REUTERS
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