South Korea: Stocks, won rise to more than 1-week high

[SEOUL[ South Korea's Kospi stock index rose on Thursday. The Korean won also strengthened on the local platform while bond yields fell.

At 01.31 GMT, the Kospi was up 18.08 points or 0.73 per cent at 2,499.29. The index rose as the Federal Reserve's raised rates as expected with no major surprises on the outlook for policy.

The won was quoted at 1,085.7 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform , 0.46 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,090.7.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,085.43 per US dollar, down 0.17 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was transacted at 1,078.35 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.55 percent, after US stocks ended the previous session down . Japanese stocks weakened 0.12 per cent.

The Kospi is up around 22.4 per cent so far this year, and down by 2.97 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 90,700,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 872, the number of advancing shares was 405.

Foreigners were net buyers of 16,119 million won worth of shares.

The U S dollar has fallen 10.02 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,075.71 per dollar on November 29 2017 and low is 1,211.8 on January 3 2017.

In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.07 points to 108.37.

The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.66 per cent, unchanged from the previous close, while the benchmark 3-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.058 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.08 per cent.

REUTERS