South Korea: Stocks edge higher, won falls on broader dollar strength

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index rose on Monday. The Korean won and bond yields fell.

At 01:23 GMT, the Kospi was up 4.86 points or 0.20 per cent at 2,465.51.

The won was quoted at 1,081.7 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.38 per cent weaker than its previous close at 1,077.6, as the US dollar strengthened across the board.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,081.15 per US dollar, down 0.05 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being asked at 1,064.35 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.37 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with losses. Japanese stocks rose 0.41 per cent.

The Kospi is down around 0.3 per cent so far this year, and down by 2.18 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 207,726,000 shares and, of the total traded issues of 879, the number of advancing shares was 383.

Foreigners were net sellers of 60,241 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has risen 1.45 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 February 6 2018.

In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.01 points to 107.75.

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 2.229 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.24 per cent.

REUTERS