S.Korea stocks steady ahead of China economic data; won falls

BGF Retail

16/07/2018 02:30

* KOSPI index steady, foreigners sell
    * Korean won drops against U.S. dollar
    * South Korea bond yields down

    SEOUL, July 16 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean
financial markets:
** South Korea's KOSPI stock index  .KS11  traded steady on
Monday ahead of key Chinese economic data which is expected to
show signs of modest slowdown. The Korean won fell, while bond
yields edged down.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1U93GE
 
** At 01:03 GMT, the KOSPI was up 0.79 points, or 0.03 percent,
at 2,311.69.
    
** Retail stocks dropped after the Minimum Wage Commission said
on Saturday it would raise minimum wages by 10.9 percent for
2019. GS Retail Co Ltd  007070.KS  fell as much as 12.4 percent,
while BGF Retail Co Ltd  282330.KS  tumbled 9.2 percent.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1UC05H
 
** The won was quoted at 1,128.7 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform  KRW=KFTC , 0.46 percent weaker than its
previous close at 1,123.5. 
 
** In offshore trading, the won  KRW=  was quoted at 1,128.8 per
U.S. dollar, up 0.02 percent from the previous day, while in
one-year non-deliverable forwards  KRWNDFOR=  it was being asked
at 1,111.35 per dollar. 
 
** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
 .MIAPJ0000PUS  was down 0.04 percent, after U.S. stocks ended
the previous session with gains  MKTS/GLOB . The Japanese stock
market  .N225  was closed due to a holiday. 
 
** The KOSPI is down around 6.3 percent so far this year, and
down by 4.07 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 99,458,000 shares and, of the total traded issues of
881, the number of advancing shares was 345.
 
** Foreigners were net sellers of 1,423 million won worth of
shares.
 
** The U.S dollar has risen 5.85 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 1,133.98 on July 13, 2018.
 
** In money and debt markets, September futures on three-year
treasury bonds  KTBc1  rose 0.01 points to 108.13.
 
** The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was
quoted at 1.65 percent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean
treasury bond yielded 2.107 percent, lower than the previous
day's 2.11 percent.

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