S.Korean stocks edge higher on bargain hunting; down 0.8 pct for week

Celltrion Pharm

19/04/2019 08:05

* KOSPI index rises, foreigners net sellers
    * Korean won steady versus U.S. dollar
    * South Korea benchmark bond yield rises
    * For the midday report, please click  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2210AF

    SEOUL, April 19 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean
financial markets:
    
** South Korea's KOSPI stock index  .KS11  edged higher on
Friday on bargain hunting after losses in the previous session,
though gains were limited by foreigners' sell-off. The Korean
won held steady while the benchmark bond yield rose.
 
** The Seoul stock market's main KOSPI ended up 2.38 points or
0.11 percent to 2,216.15. 
    
** South Korea's biggest drugmaker Celltrion  068270.KS  and its
affiliates, Celltrion HealthCare  091990.KQ  and Celltrion Pharm
 068760.KQ , jumped in expectation of improved profitability as
the company begins to produce new biosimilar medication, Remsima
SC. 
 
** For the week, the KOSPI lost 0.76 percent, snapping two weeks
of gains. 
    
** Foreigners were net sellers of 58.1 billion won ($51.15
million) worth of shares on the main board, while local
institutions and individual investors were net buyers of a total
55.1 billion won worth of stocks. 
    
** The won was quoted at 1,136.9 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform  KRW=KFTC , steady from its previous close
at 1,136.9. On a weekly basis, the currency added 0.2 percent. 
     
** In offshore trading, the won  KRW=  was quoted at 1,136.6 per
U.S. dollar, unchanged from the previous day, while in one-year
non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract
 KRW1MNDFOR=  was quoted at 1,135.3 per dollar.
    
** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
 .MIAPJ0000PUS  was up 0.03 percent, after U.S. stocks closed
higher on brisk retail data  MKTS/GLOB . Japanese stocks  .N225 
rose 0.50 percent.
    
** The KOSPI has risen 8.59 percent so far this year, and gained
2.2 percent in the previous 30 trading sessions.
    
** 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 515.70 million shares and, of the total traded
issues of 894, the number of advancing shares was 523.
    
** The won has lost 1.9 percent against the U.S dollar this
year.
    
** In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year
treasury bonds  KTBc1  fell 0.04 points to 109.43, while the
3-month Certificate of Deposit rate was quoted at 1.86 percent.
    
** The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield rose 1.3
basis points to 1.753 percent, while the benchmark 10-year yield
increased 0.7 basis points to 1.899 percent.
   
($1 = 1,135.9100 won)

 (Reporting by Hayoung Choi; Editing by Shreejay Sinha)
 ((hayoung.choi@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 3704 5643; Reuters
Messaging: hayoung.choi.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))