Seoul: Stocks steady; won edges up against US dollar

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

At 0109 GMT, the KOSPI was up 2.97 points or 0.12 per cent at 2,536.96.

The won was quoted at 1,095.9 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform , where it ended the previous session at 1,097.5.

The won was quoted at 1,096 per US dollar, down 0.25 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,093 per US dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.02 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses . Japanese stocks weakened 0.43 per cent.

The KOSPI is up around 25.0 per cent so far this year, and up by 6.78 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 106,338,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 868, the number of advancing shares was 471.

Foreigners were net buyers of 62.64 billion won (S$77.3 million) worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 9.14 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,093.1 per dollar on Nov 17, 2017 and low is 1,211.8 on Jan 3, 2017.

In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.04 points to 107.9.

REUTERS