Seoul: Stocks, won tumble on Turkish rout

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index closed at its lowest since May last year as the Turkish crisis also hit Asia's fourth largest economy. The won dropped as investors fled to safer havens, while bond yields rose.

The Kospi ended down 34.34 points or 1.5 per cent at 2,248.45, in line with other Asian countries.

The won was quoted at 1,133.9 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.44 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,128.9, marking the lowest since July 25.

Most leading Kospi shares were in the red with top biopharmaceutical firms Celltrion and Samsung Biologics down 4.2 per cent and 3.9 per cent respectively, following a grim outlook by Goldman Sachs.

The third inter-Korean summit, which will take place next month in the North Korean capital Pyongyang, boosted steel and construction shares with exposure to North Korea. Moonbae Steel, which soared as much as 15 per cent intraday, ended up 4.9 per cent.

South Korean finance minister Kim Don Yeon said it will spend US$4.4 billion next year on blockchain and AI industries, noting drones, self-driving cars, automated factories, hydrogen vehicles and bio-health sectors as the country's growth drivers.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,133.95 per US dollar, down 0.42 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,117.75 per US dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 1.4 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses. Japanese stocks weakened 1.98 per cent.

The Kospi is down around 7.5 per cent so far this year, and down by 1.86 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$1.51 trillion).

The trading volume during the session on the Kospi index was 330,544,000 shares and, of the total 898 traded issues, the number of advancing shares was 83. ** Foreigners were net sellers of 172,309 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has risen 6.34 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 low is 1,140.4 on July 19.

In money and debt markets, September futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.02 points to 108.35.

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 2.051 percent, higher than the previous day's 2.04 per cent.

REUTERS