S.Korean stocks track Wall Street; won gains ahead of BOK meet

ContentreeJoongAng

17/10/2018 08:04

* KOSPI index gains, foreigners buy
    * Korean won edges up against dollar
    * South Korea bond yields fall
    * For the midday report, please click  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1WX12X

    SEOUL, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean financial
markets:
** South Korea's KOSPI stock index  .KS11  ended higher on
Wednesday tracking Wall Street as upbeat U.S. earnings boosted
investor sentiment. The won edged higher while bond yields fell.
    
    ** The KOSPI closed 22.39 points or 1.04 percent higher at
2,167.51.
    
    ** South Korean stocks edged up along with U.S. stocks as
the downturn seemed to calm down. However, U.S. Treasury rates
remaining at 3.16 percent is still putting pressure on South
Korea's stock market, says Huh Jae-hwan, an analyst at Eugene
Investment & Securities.
    
    ** Shares of Samsung Biologics Co Ltd  207940.KS  ended 3.7
percent down after a local media report that the financial
watchdog will take disciplinary measure against the drugmaker.
Financial Supervisory Service has reportedly concluded that the
company violated accounting rules.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1WX09B

    ** While Netflix Inc  NFLX.O  rose 12 percent after the
close as its results far outstripped market expectations with 7
million streaming customers added, South Korean drama production
company Studio Dragon Corp  253450.KQ  and Jcontentree Corp
 036420.KQ  jumped 8.3 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1WW5AY
    
    ** The won was quoted at 1,126.5 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform  KRW=KFTC , 0.13 percent firmer than its
previous close at 1,128, ahead of Bank of Korea's monetary
policy meeting on Thursday, with some expecting it to keep
benchmark rate steady to 1.50 percent.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1WS3KA 
    
    ** In offshore trading, the won  KRW=  was quoted at
1,126.46 per U.S. dollar, down 0.3 percent from the previous
day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards  KRWNDFOR=  it
was being asked at 1,108.7 per dollar. 
    ** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside
Japan  .MIAPJ0000PUS  was up 0.54 percent, after U.S. stocks
ended the previous session with gains  MKTS/GLOB . Japanese
stocks  .N225  rose 1.29 percent. 
 
    ** The KOSPI is down around 13.1 percent so far this year,
and down by 6.86 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 266,396,000 shares and, of the total 898 traded
issues, the number of advancing shares was 643.
 
    ** Foreigners were net buyers of 6,068 million won worth of
shares.
 
    ** The U.S dollar has risen 5.64 percent against the won
this year. The won's high for the year is 1,053.55 per dollar on
April 2 and the low is 1,146.26 on Oct. 11.
 
    ** In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year
treasury bonds  KTBc1  rose 0.1 points to 108.44.
 
    ** The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate
was quoted at 1.68 percent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean
treasury bond yielded 2.026 percent, lower than the previous
day's 2.05 percent.

 (Reporting by Joori Roh, Yuna Park; Editing by Sunil Nair)
 ((joori.roh@thomsonreuters.com;))