S.Korea stocks, won gain on trade optimism

Amorepacific

30/08/2018 03:07

* KOSPI index rises, foreigners buy
    * Korean won inches up against U.S. dollar
    * South Korea bond yields up

    SEOUL, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean financial
markets:
** South Korea's KOSPI stock index  .KS11  and the won rose on
Thursday, tracking gains on Wall Street on expectations that the
current North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations
will lead to a further easing of global trade tensions.
 
** At 01:35 GMT, the KOSPI was up 9.62 points, or 0.42 percent,
at 2,318.65. Steelmakers led the gains after the U.S. Commerce
Department said that President Donald Trump signed a
proclamation permitting targeted relief from steel and aluminium
quotas from countries including South Korea. Posco  005490.KS 
and Hyundai Steel Co  004020.KS  gained 2 percent and 3.8
percent, respectively.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nS6N1VD00I

** Cosmetic and duty-free firms exposed to China rose after
Beijing lifted bans in more cities on tour packages to South
Korea. China had earlier allowed some Shanghai-based agencies to
sell South Korea tour packages. Cosmetic brands including
Amorepacific Corp  090430.KS , popular among Chinese customers,
gained 2.3 percent, while companies engaged in duty-free
business such as Hotel Shilla Co Ltd  008770.KS  and Shinsegae
Inc  004170.KS  climbed 2.4 percent and 1.8 percent
respectively.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1US2VV urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1VL074
 
** The won was quoted at 1,108.1 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform  KRW=KFTC , 0.19 percent firmer than its
previous close at 1,110.2. 
 
** In offshore trading, the won  KRW=  was quoted at 1,108.2 per
U.S. dollar, up 0.13 percent from the previous day, while in
one-year non-deliverable forwards  KRWNDFOR=  it was being
transacted at 1,090.85 per dollar. 
 
** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
 .MIAPJ0000PUS  was up 0.24 percent, after U.S. stocks ended the
previous session with mild gains  MKTS/GLOB . Japanese stocks
 .N225  rose 0.51 percent. 
 
** The KOSPI is down around 6.4 percent so far this year, and up
by 0.48 percent in the previous 30 days.
 
** The current price-to-earnings ratio is 12.10, the dividend
yield is 1.28 percent and the market capitalisation is 1,242.04
trillion won. 
 
** The trading volume during the session on the KOSPI index
 .KS11  was 106,161,000 shares and, of the total traded issues
of 892, the number of advancing shares was 476.
 
** Foreigners were net buyers of 82,243 million won worth of
shares.
 
** The U.S dollar has risen 3.92 percent 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 1,140.4 on July 19, 2018.
 
** In money and debt markets, September futures on three-year
treasury bonds  KTBc1  fell 0.03 points to 108.71.
 
** The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was
quoted at 1.65 percent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean
treasury bond yielded 1.969 percent, higher than the previous
day's 1.95 percent.

 (Reporting by Joori Roh; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
 ((joori.roh@thomsonreuters.com;))