Seoul: Stocks rise on solid foreign demand, won up

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index rose on Wednesday. The Korean won also advanced while bond yields fell. At 06:38 GMT, the Kospi was up 15.35 points or 0.61 per cent at 2,533.60. The benchmark index was largely supported by foreign investors' demand.

The won was quoted at 1,099.58 per US dollar, up 0.46 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,097.85 per US dollar. The won was quoted at 1,101.4 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, where it ended the previous session at 1,112.3. The currency closed at more than a 13-month high, reflecting a soft US dollar and thanks to a bilateral currency swap deal between South Korea and Canada.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.70 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses. Japanese stocks rose 1.47 per cent.

The Kospi is up around 24.3 per cent so far this year, and up by 6.06 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 263,555,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 873, the number of advancing shares was 483.

Foreigners were net buyers of 209,160 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 8.84 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,099.8 per US dollar on November 16 2017 and low is 1,211.8 on January 3 2017.

The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.43 per cent, unchanged from the previous close, while the benchmark 3-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.166 per cent, lower than Wednesday's 2.18 per cent.

REUTERS