S.Korean stocks, won strengthen after Powell comments

Busan Industrial Co

27/08/2018 08:02

* KOSPI index gains as foreigners buy
    * Korean won climbs vs U.S. dollar
    * South Korea bond yields up
    * For the midday report, please click  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1VI1AM

    SEOUL, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean financial
markets:
    ** South Korea's KOSPI stock index  .KS11  and the currency
won rose on Monday taking heart from comments by the Federal
Reserve chairman Powell that drove Wall Street to record highs
on Friday. South Korean bond yields also rose.
    
    ** The Federal Reserve's chairman Jerome Powell said on
Friday that steady interest rate hikes are the best way to
protect the U.S. economic recovery and keep job growth as strong
as possible and inflation under control, in a high-profile
endorsement of the central bank's current approach to policy.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nN9N1TU010
 
** At 06:30 GMT, the KOSPI was up 6.09 points or 0.27 percent at
2,299.30.
    
    ** South Korean firms with exposure to North Korea,
including Hanil Hyundai Cement  006390.KS  and Busan Industrial
Co Ltd  011390.KS  closed down 14.4 percent and 10.1 percent,
respectively, after U.S. President Donald Trump called off Mike
Pompeo's trip to North Korea on Friday, saying the two countries
were not making sufficient progress on denuclearisation.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1VI04U
 
** The won was quoted at 1,113.8 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform  KRW=KFTC , 0.46 percent firmer than its
previous close at 1,118.9. 
 
** In offshore trading, the won  KRW=  was quoted at 1,113.74
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 1,097.65 per dollar. 
 
** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
 .MIAPJ0000PUS  rose 1.10 percent after U.S. stocks ended the
previous session with mild gains  MKTS/GLOB . Japanese stocks
 .N225  rose 0.88 percent. 
 
** The KOSPI is down around 7.1 percent so far this year, and up
by 0.36 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 300,061,000 shares, and of the total traded issues
of 898, the number of advancing shares was 328.
 
** Foreigners were net buyers of 235,399 million won worth of
shares.
 
** The U.S dollar has risen 4.44 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 0.02 points to 108.68.
 
** The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was
quoted at 1.65 percent while the benchmark 3-year Korean
treasury bond yielded 1.967 percent, higher than the previous
day's 1.97 percent.

 (Reporting by Joori Roh; Editing by Vyas Mohan)
 ((joori.roh@thomsonreuters.com;))