South Korea: Stocks rise following Wall Street, won steady

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index rose on Friday, buoyed by gains on Wall Street overnight. The Korean won was steady while bond yields fell.

At 01:17 GMT, the KOSPI was up 18.42 points, or 0.76 per cent, at 2,454.79.

Hyundai Mobis and Hyundai Glovis shares fell as much as 6.3 per cent and 7.1 per cent, respectively, on worries its parent group's restructuring plan will disadvantage Mobis shareholders.

Kumho Tire Co Inc's shares jumped as much as 16.7 per cent ahead of the tyre manufacturer's decision whether to enter court receivership with investors expecting a dramatic agreement between the company and its labour union.

The won was quoted at 1,065.3 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform , 0.06 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,065.9.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,064.8 per US dollar, down 0.26 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,048.5 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.30 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with gains. Japanese stocks rose 0.88 per cent.

The Kospi is down around 1.3 per cent so far this year, and up by 2.14 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 142,292,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 878, the number of advancing shares was 593.

Foreigners were net sellers of 47,308 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 0.15 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,056.67 per dollar on Jan 14, 2018 and low is 1,098.4 on Feb 6, 2018.

In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds held steady at 107.7.

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 2.223 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.23 per cent.

REUTERS