Seoul: Stocks, won fall; Hyundai auto shares up

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index weakened on Wednesday. The Korean won turned weaker after posting a 3-1/2-year high in the previous session, while bond yields rose.

At 01.07 GMT, the Kospi was down 3.60 points, or 0.15 per cent, at 2,438.83.

Hyundai Group shares rose after US hedge fund Elliott called for better corporate governance. Shares of Hyundai Mobis rose as much as 6.1 per cent to their highest since Jan 25, while Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors climbed 4.9 per cent and 3.2 per cent, respectively.

The won was quoted at 1,055.5 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.12 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,054.2.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,054.96 per US dollar, down 0.1 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,039.1 per US dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.05 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with gains. Japanese stocks rose 0.2 per cent.

The Kospi is down around one per cent so far this year, and up by 0.02 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 178,097,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 882, the number of advancing shares was 298.

Foreigners were net sellers of 26,712 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 1.02 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 low is 1,098.4 on Feb 6, 2018.

In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.01 points to 107.79.

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 2.194 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.19 per cent.

REUTERS