Seoul: Stocks turn up; won hovers at over 2-1/2-year high

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index rose on Wednesday. The Korean won edged up on the local platfrom and bond yields climbed. At 0632 GMT, the KOSPI was up 9.33 points or 0.38 per cent at 2,436.67, bouncing from earlier losses on late-afternoon bargin-hunting.

The won was quoted at 1,074.1 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.19 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,076.1. The currency is up for the third consecutive session, hovering at more than 2-1/2-year highs.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,072.5 per US dollar, up 0.24 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it changed hands at 1,066.5 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.33 per cent, looking past losses in US stocks the previous session. Japanese stocks rose 0.08 per cent.

The KOSPI is up around 19.8 per cent so far this year, and down by 4.07 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 191,010,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 880, the number of advancing shares was 374. Foreigners were net sellers of 109,320 million won worth of shares.

The U.S dollar has fallen 11.09 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,074.06 per dollar on Dec 27, 2017 and low is 1,211.8 on Jan 3, 2017.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.08 points to 107.86. The 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 2.147 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.13 per cent.

REUTERS