South Korea: Stocks edge lower, won holds steady

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index edged down on Friday. The Korean won held steady, while bond yields rose.

At 0132 GMT, the Kospi was down 12.73 points or 0.51 per cent at 2,474.52. The benchmark stock index was pulled down by ongoing worries about trade tensions between the United States and China.

The won was quoted at 1,075.9 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform , 0.04 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,076.3.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,074.83 per US dollar, down 0.03 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being asked at 1,059.16 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.02 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses.

The Kospi is up around 0.8 per cent so far this year, and climbed 0.09 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 273,022,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 878, the number of advancing shares was 409.

Foreigners were net sellers of 60,878 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has risen 0.79 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 dropped 0.05 points to 107.56.

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 2.273 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.25 per cent.

REUTERS