Seoul: Stocks slide, hover at 3-week low; won weaker

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index slumped more than 1 per cent on Monday following global trends, as US trade war worries and political uncertainties in Italy hurt market sentiment. The Korean won edged down in the local platform while bond yields rose.

At 0632 GMT, the KOSPI was down 27.10 points, or 1.13 per cent, at 2,375.06. The benchmark index closed at its weakest level since Feb 9. The won was quoted at 1,082 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.16 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,080.3.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,081.33 per US dollar, down 0.21 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,071.15 per dollar. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.88 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild gains. Japanese stocks weakened 0.66 per cent.

The KOSPI is down around 2.6 per cent so far this year, and down by 4.74 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 304,709,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 887, the number of advancing shares was 210. Foreigners were net sellers of 98,428 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has risen 1.37 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,056.67 per dollar on Jan 14 and low is 1,098.4 on Feb 6.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.05 point to 107.65.

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 2.315 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.28 per cent.

REUTERS