S.Korean stocks, won extend losses on trade war concerns
19/06/2018 07:30
* KOSPI index ended lower, foreigners sell
* Korean won weakest since Nov. 2017
* South Korea bond yields down
* For the midday report, please click urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1TL0MV
SEOUL, June 19 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean
financial markets:
** South Korea's KOSPI stock index .KS11 and the won slid on
Tuesday as U.S. President Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on
Chinese products after Beijing decided to raise tariffs on U.S.
goods as a retaliation, worsening the trade spat between the
world's two biggest economies. Bond yields dropped. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1TK1XD
Meanwhile, South Korea's central bank governor Lee Ju-yeol
said the commercial conflict between the two countries could
have a sizeable impact on the Korean economy, adding the
"uncertainties are high". urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1TL0FK
** At 0631 GMT, the KOSPI ended down 36.10 points or 1.52
percent at 2,340.14, hitting the lowest since February. The
overall large-cap stocks such as the nation's steelmaker Posco
005490.KS and Samsung Biologics 207940.KS closed 4.5 percent
and 6.5 percent lower, respectively, while the market
heavyweight Samsung Electronics 005930.KS rallied to end
higher after a four-day losing streak.
** South Korea's railway-related stocks and cement producers
gained after the U.S. and South Korea agreed to suspend a joint
military drill scheduled for August, as it improved investor
sentiment seeking benefit from any inter-Korean infrastructure
projects. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1TL0ZR urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1TL0E5
** The won was quoted at 1,109.1 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform KRW=KFTC , 0.39 percent weaker than its
previous close at 1,104.8, and extending losses into a fifth day
session hitting the lowest since November 2017.
** In offshore trading, the won KRW= was quoted at 1,108.33
per U.S. dollar, down 0.54 percent from the previous day, while
in one-year non-deliverable forwards KRWNDFOR= it was being
asked at 1,092.25 per dollar.
** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS was down 1.78 percent, after U.S. stocks ended
the previous session with losses MKTS/GLOB . Japanese stocks
.N225 weakened 1.77 percent.
** The KOSPI is down around 3.7 percent so far this year, and
lost 5.53 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 600,234,000 shares and, of the total traded issues
of 888, the number of advancing shares was 137.
** Foreigners were net sellers of 181,000 million won worth of
shares.
** The U.S dollar has risen 3.95 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 1,109.6 on June 19, 2018.
** In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year
treasury bonds KTBc1 rose 0.02 points to 108.06.
** The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was
quoted at 1.65 percent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean
treasury bond yielded 2.168 percent, lower than the previous
day's 2.18 percent.
(Reporting by Joori Roh, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
((joori.roh@thomsonreuters.com;))