South Korea: Stocks rise, won steady

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index rose on Thursday. The Korean won was firm while bond yields fell.

At 02.01 GMT, the Kospi was up 7.66 points or 0.30 per cent at 2,525.91.

The won was quoted at 1,104.55 per US dollar, up 0.01 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,101.45 per dollar.

The won was quoted at 1,105.2 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform , where it ended the previous session at 1,112.3. The currency jumped to a 13-month intraday high after South Korea and Canada signed a standing bilateral currency swap that has no limit on liquidity provisions and no expiration date.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.33 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mildlosses .

Japanese stocks rose 0.54 per cent.

The KOSPI is up around 24.3 per cent so far this year, and up by 6.06 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 90,474,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 872, the number of advancing shares was 399.

oreigners were net sellers of 3,779 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 8.43 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,102.67 per dollar on Nov 15, 2017 and low is 1,211.8 on Jan 3 2017.

REUTERS