Seoul: Stocks, won rebound from Turkish woes

[SEOUL[ South Korea's Kospi stock index and the won gained on Tuesday, recovering confidence after the Turkish turmoil. Bond yields rose as well.

The Kospi closed up 10.46 points or 0.47 per cent at 2,258.91, with leading shares, including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, edging up from a day before.

Shares of ING Life Insurance Korea ended down 12.4 per cent after a report in the Korea Economic Daily that Shinhan Financial is set to buy a majority stake in the insurer.

LG Electronics lost 3.5 per cent, marking its lowest close in 52 weeks, hit by weak sales in emerging markets.

The won was quoted at 1,127.9 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.53 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,133.9, shrugging of China's disappointing economic data.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,128.45 per US dollar, up 0.66 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,111.95 per US dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.11 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses. Japanese stocks rose 2.28 per cent.

The Kospi is down around 8.9 per cent so far this year, and down by 1.02 per cent in the previous 30 days.

The current price-to-earnings ratio is 12.1, the dividend yield is 1.28 per cent and the market capitalisation is 1,242.04 trillion won (S$1.5 million).

The trading volume during the session on the Kospi index was 250,633,000 shares and, of the total 896 traded issues, the number of advancing shares was 565.

Foreigners were net sellers of 7,938 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has risen 5.82 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,053.55 per US dollar on April 2 and the low is 1,140.4 on July 19.

In money and debt markets, September futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.01 points to 108.32.

The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.65 per cent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.06 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.05 per cent.

REUTERS