South Korea: Stocks rebound, won up sharply on exporters' dollar-selling

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index rose on Monday, while the won jumped against the dollar on the local platform and bond yields also climbed.

At 01:01 GMT, the Kospi was up 12.72 points or 0.54 per cent at 2,376.49. The benchmark index has pared some of its losses of near 8 per cent of the past 7 sessions.

The won was quoted at 1,082.9 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform , 0.85 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,092.1. The currency was supported by exporters' dollar-selling ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, which starts on Thursday.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,082.8 per dollar, up 0.17 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it fetched 1,072.95 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 gains. Japanese stocks weakened 2.32 per cent.

The Kospi is down around 4.2 per cent so far this year, and 2.99 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 100,395,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 878, the number of advancing shares was 378.

Foreigners were net sellers of 25,865 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has risen 1.54 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,056.67 per dollar on January 14 and low is 1,098.4 on February 6.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds were unchanged at 107.55.

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 2.29 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.28 per cent.

REUTERS