South Korea won climbs to over 3-year high, stocks rise

[SEOUL] South Korea's Kospi stock index rose on Tuesday. The Korean won strengthened to a more than three-year high in the domestic market while bond yields fell.

At 02:03 GMT, the Kospi was up 5.60 points or 0.23 per cent at 2,472.57.

The won was quoted at 1,066.4 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform , 0.38 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,070.5. The currency was bolstered after North Korea called for lower military tensions with the South amid firm support from a strong yuan, said Jeon Seung Ji, a foreign exchange analyst at Samsung Futures.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,066 per US dollar, down 0.01 percent from the previous session, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,058.6 per US dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.55 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses.

The Kospi is up around 21.8 per cent so far this year, and down by 2.02 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 86,067,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 875, the number of advancing shares was 442.

Foreigners were net sellers of 31,575 million won worth of shares.

The US dollar has fallen 11.63 percent against the won this year.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.06 points to 107.95.

The Korean three-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.66 per cent, unchanged from its a previous close, while the benchmark three-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.122 per cent, lower than the previous day's 2.13 per cent.

REUTERS