Seoul: Stocks, won steady; both end the week down

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index and the won held steady on Friday while bond yields fell. At 06:32 GMT, the KOSPI was up 2.02 points or 0.08 per cent at 2,464.00. The benchmark index fell 0.5 per cent for the week.

The won was quoted at 1,093.3 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.02 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,093.5. The currency lost 0.6 per cent this week, its biggest weekly per centage drop since late September.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,091.98 per US dollar, up 0.06 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,087.85 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.83 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild gains. Japanese stocks rose 1.39 per cent.

The KOSPI is up around 21.5 per cent so far this year, and down by 0.75 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 401,810,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 877, the number of advancing shares was 194. Foreigners were net sellers of 60,546 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 9.45 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,075.71 per dollar on Nov 29 and low is 1,211.8 on Jan 3.

In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds were unchanged at 108.23.

The Korean three-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 2.096 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.10 per cent.

REUTERS