Seoul: Stocks, won fall as Fed tightens, signals more hikes ahead

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index and the won weakened on Thursday after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the second time this year and indicated two more rate hikes were likely in 2018.

At 01.09 GMT, the Kospi was down 28.02 points or 1.13 per cent at 2,440.81.

Market heavyweight Samsung Electronics dropped 1.5 per cent to 48550 won, hitting the lowest since a 50:1 stock split in May.

SK Hynix and Hyundai Motor slipped 1.6 per cent and 2.5 per cent, respectively.

The won was quoted at 1,081.3 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.38 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,077.2.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,080.48 per US dollar, up 0.43 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being asked at 1,063.55 per US dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.37 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses.

Japanese stocks weakened 0.41 per cent.

The Kospi is up around 0.1 per cent so far this year, and down by 0.82 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 (S$1.53 trillion).

The trading volume during the session on the Kospi index was 179,347,000 shares and, of the total 879 traded issues, the number of advancing shares was 211.

Foreigners were net sellers of 137,172 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has risen 1.36 per cent against the won this year.

The won's high for the year is 1,053.55 per US dollar on April 2, 2018, and the low is 1,098.4 on Feb 6, 2018.

In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.11 points to 107.83.

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 2.253 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.23 per cent.

REUTERS