South Korea: Stocks edge down, won weakens on dollar strength

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index weakened on Wednesday. The greenback's broad strength weighed on the Korean won in the local platform, while bond yields dropped.

At 0148 GMT, the Kospi was down 5.74 points or 0.23 per cent at 2,444.07.

The won was quoted at 1,082.5 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.55 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,076.5.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,081.29 per US dollar, down 0.36 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being asked at 1,064.15 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.16 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with losses. Japanese stocks weakened 0.42 per cent.

The Kospi is down around 0.7 per cent so far this year, and climbed 1.37 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 286,915,000 shares and, of the total traded issues of 880, the number of advancing shares was 321.

Foreigners were net sellers of 67,429 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has risen 1.4 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,053.55 per dollar on April 2, 2018, and low is 1,098.4 on Feb. 6 this year.

In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.02 points to 107.46.

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 2.306 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.31 per cent.

REUTERS