S.Korea stocks gain ahead of U.S. mid-term election results; won up

Eugene Investment & Securities Co

07/11/2018 02:25

* KOSPI index rises, foreigners sell
    * Korean won inches up against dollar
    * South Korea bond yields up

    SEOUL, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean financial
markets   
** South Korea's KOSPI stock index  .KS11  gained on Wednesday
as early results of U.S. mid-term elections appeared to show
Republicans improving their chances of retaining their grip on
Congress. The Korean won edged up, while bond yields also rose.
    
** At 0219 GMT, the KOSPI was up 15.01 points or 0.72 percent at
2,104.63.
    
** Shares of South Korean securities firms jump as the country's
top financial regulator says it is about time to consider
abolishing the market's securities transaction tax. NH
Investment & Securities  005940.KS , Eugene Investment &
Securities  001200.KS  and Mirae Asset Daewoo  006800.KS  traded
up 3.4 pct, 3.2 pct and 3.6 pct, respectively.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1XI19V urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1XH39T
    
** Investors had expected the opposition Democrats to pick up at
least 23 seats they need to gain a majority in the House and, as
a result, remained sceptical about U.S. President Donald Trump's
proposal late last month on tax cuts for middle-income
households. While the final results are still hours away,
markets have reacted as a surprise victory by the Republicans
could boost the chances of further tax cuts and pro-business
policies.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N1XH0IT
    
** The won was quoted at 1,122.4 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform  KRW=KFTC , 0.12 percent firmer than  its
previous close at 1,123.8.
    
** In offshore trading, the won  KRW=  was quoted at 1,122 per
U.S. dollar, down 0.1 percent from the previous day, while in
one-year non-deliverable forwards  KRWNDFOR=  it was being asked
at 1,103.95 per dollar.
    
** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
 .MIAPJ0000PUS  was up 0.24 percent, after U.S. stocks ended the
previous session with gains  MKTS/GLOB . Japanese stocks  .N225 
rose 1.1 percent.
    
** The KOSPI is down around 15.3 percent so far this year, and
down by 9.50 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 185,563,000 shares and, of the total traded issues
of 895, the number of advancing shares was 665.
    
** Foreigners were net sellers of 26,479 million won worth of
shares.
    
** The U.S dollar rose 5.22 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 Oct. 11, 2018.
    
** In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year
treasury bonds  KTBc1  fell 0.01 points to 108.57.
    

 (Reporting by Joori Roh, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
 ((joori.roh@thomsonreuters.com;))