South Korea: Stocks rise, won edges up on soft US inflation

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index rose on Friday, while the Korean won gained against the dollar on local platform as the greenback retreated on weaker-than-expected US inflation.

At 0153 GMT, the Kospi was up 14.34 points or 0.58 per cent at 2,478.50.

South Korea's budget airline Jin Air Co Ltd rose as much as 9.3 per cent, a record intraday percentage gain, after co-CEO Cho Yang-ho stepped down in the wake of recent allegations of bad behaviour by his daughter.

The won was quoted at 1,067.5 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.52 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,073.1.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,069.2 per US dollar, down 0.42 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being asked at 1,052.65 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.71 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild gains. Japanese stocks rose 0.78 per cent.

The Kospi is down around 0.1 per cent so far this year, and climbed 0.49 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 225,999,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 885, the number of advancing shares was 528.

Foreigners were net buyers of 119,737 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar rose 0.27 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 rose 0.03 points to 107.58.

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 2.272 percent, lower than the previous day's 2.28 per cent.

REUTERS