Seoul: Stocks, won off to weaker start

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index weakened on Monday. The Korean won slightly fell in the local platform and bond yields fell.

At 01:22 GMT, the KOSPI was down 3.20 points or 0.13 per cent at 2,478.87.

The won was quoted at 1,090.7 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform , 0.08 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,089.8.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,090.31 per US dollar, down 0.22 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,082.75 per US dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.14 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild gains. Japanese stocks rose 0.96 per cent.

The KOSPI is up around 22.5 per cent so far this year, and down by 2.97 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 118,175,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 871, the number of advancing shares was 323.

Foreigners were net sellers of 72,400 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 9.61 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,075.71 per US dollar on November 29 2017 and low is 1,211.8 on January 3 2017.

In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.01 points to 108.33.

The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.66 per cent compared with a previous close of 1.66 per cent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.076 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.08 per cent.

REUTERS