Seoul: Stocks rise; won down on suspected greenback buying by government

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index rose on Monday. The Korean won fell in the local platform while bond yields rose.

At 0632GMT, the KOSPI was up 15.79 points or 0.63 per cent at 2,513.31. ** The won was quoted at 1,066 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.31 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,062.7.

South Korean foreign exchange authorities were suspected of buying around US$1.5 billion in the market on Monday, as the won strengthened to a more than three-year intraday high.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,065.15 per US dollar, down 0.34 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,058.35 per dollar.

The KOSPI is up around 1.2 per cent so far this year, and down by 1.31 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 308,851,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 881, the number of advancing shares was 337.

Foreigners were net buyers of 391,462 million won worth of shares. The US dollar has fallen 0.11 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,059 per dollar on Jan 8, 2018 and low is 1,069.7 on Jan 8, 2018.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.05 points to 107.9. The South Korean three-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.66 per cent, unmoved from its previous close, while the benchmark three-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.136 per cent, higher than the previous session's 2.10 per cent.

REUTERS