Seoul: Stocks rise, won hovers above 2-1/2-year high

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index rose on Friday. The Korean won was steady on the local platform, hovering above 2-1/2-year highs while bond yields rose. At 06:30 GMT, the Kospi was up 7.18 points or 0.28 per cent at 2,544.33. The benchmark index rose 0.4 per cent for the week.

The won was quoted at 1,085.4 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, unchanged compared with its previous close. For the week, the currency gained 1.2 per cent.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,084.85 per US dollar, down 0.19 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,081.7 per US dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.19 per cent. Japanese stocks rose 0.12 per cent.

The Kospi is up around 25.2 per cent so far this year, and up by 2.52 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 294,322,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 873, the number of advancing shares was 433.

Foreigners were net sellers of 110,056 million won worth of shares. The US US dollar has fallen 10.05 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,083.4 per US dollar on November 24 2017 and low is 1,211.8 on January 3 2017.

In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.09 points to 107.97. The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.5 per cent compared with a previous close of 1.49 per cent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.166 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.13 per cent.

REUTERS