S.Korean stocks decline tracking Chinese markets; won slips

Busan Industrial Co

23/11/2018 06:55

* KOSPI index sags, foreigners buy
    * Korean won drops versus U.S. dollar
    * South Korea bond yields down
    * For the midday report, please click  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1XY1R5

    SEOUL, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean financial
markets:
** South Korea's KOSPI stock index  .KS11  dropped on Friday in
line with Chinese markets, in its fourth straight session of
losses. The Korean won and bond yields slipped.
 
** At 06:31 GMT, the KOSPI was down 12.47 points, or 0.60
percent, at 2,057.48. For the week, the main index lost 1.7
percent. 

** South Korean markets became bearish tracking Chinese stocks
following the Chinese Vice Commerce Minister said Beijing hopes
Sino-U.S. trade talk to be equal and mutually beneficial,
according to Lee Kyoung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1XY1RQ
    
** Shares exposed to North Korea surge, with Busan Industrial
 011390.KS  jumping 17.1 percent, as a unification ministry
official said the country is in talks with the United States and
other relevant countries to discuss temporary sanctions
exemption for a joint railway field study with Pyongyang.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1XY045

** Shares of South Korean global trading company Hyundai Corp
 011760.KS  closed up 5.3 percent on optimism peace talks in
Yemen will lead to a revival of business at its Yemen LNG
project.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1XY2FC
 
** The won was quoted at 1,130.5 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform  KRW=KFTC , 0.11 percent weaker than its
previous close at 1,129.2. The Korean won weakened 0.2 percent
on weekly basis, marking the third consecutive week of decline. 
 
** In offshore trading, the won  KRW=  was quoted at 1,130.26
per U.S. dollar, up 0.05 percent from the previous day, while in
one-year non-deliverable forwards  KRWNDFOR=  it was being
transacted at 1,109.3 per dollar. 
 
** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
 .MIAPJ0000PUS  was down 0.23 percent, after U.S. stocks ended
the previous session with mild gains  MKTS/GLOB . Japanese
stocks  .N225  rose 0.65 percent. 
 
** The KOSPI is down around 16.1 percent so far this year, and
down by 2.80 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 221,453,000 shares and, of the total traded issues
of 894, the number of advancing shares was 233.
 
** Foreigners were net buyers of 31,872 million won worth of
shares.
 
** The U.S dollar has risen 5.99 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 1,146.26 on October 11 2018.
 
** In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year
treasury bonds  KTBc1  rose 0.08 points to 108.86.
 
** The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was
quoted at 1.7 percent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean
treasury bond yielded 1.914 percent, lower than the previous
day's 1.95 percent.

 (Reporting by Hayoung Choi, Yuna Park; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
 ((hayoung.choi@thomsonreuters.com;))