Seoul: Stocks rises for 12th straight session; won gains 0.6%

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index climbed on Monday for the 12th consecutive session as risk appetite rose after brisk first-quarter earning of U.S. firms. The Korean won and the benchmark bond yield also gained.

The Seoul stock market's main Kospi rose 9.43 points, or 0.42 per cent to 2,242.88 points, reaching the highest level since Oct 10 last year.

Airline shares led gains; Asiana Airlines' top shareholder said it will sell its entire stake of the airline. The announcement sent shares of its affiliates jumping 30 per cent in expectation of resolving their liquidity crisis.

State-owned Saudi Aramco has agreed to buy a 1.4 trillion won stake in South Korean oil refiner Hyundai Oilbank, the refiner's top shareholder said. Foreigners were net buyers of 180.7 billion won worth of shares on the main board.

The won was quoted at 1,133.1 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.56 per cent higher than its previous close at 1,139.4.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,132.7 per US dollar, up 0.1 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,131.7 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.36 per cent, after US stocks closed higher. Japanese stocks rose 1.37 per cent.

The Kospi has risen 9.89 per cent so far this year, and rose 1.7 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 397.92 million shares and, of the total traded issues of 894, the number of advancing shares was 472.

The won has lost 1.5 per cent against the US dollar this year.

In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.11 point to 109.41, while the three-month Certificate of Deposit rate was quoted at 1.86 per cent.

The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by 2.7 basis points to 1.760 per cent, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 4.6 basis points to 1.927 per cent. 

REUTERS