S.Korea stocks fall on trade spat; won rallies

Hanil Hyundai Cement Co

29/06/2018 02:43

* KOSPI index slips, foreigners sell
    * Korean won rallies against U.S. dollar
    * South Korea bond yields steady

    SEOUL, June 29 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean
financial markets:
** South Korea's KOSPI stock index  .KS11  weakened on Friday as
Sino-U.S. trade tensions escalated and led investors to move out
of emerging markets. The won rallied while bond yields remained
steady.
 
** At 01:06 GMT, the KOSPI was down 10.25 points or 0.44 percent
at 2,303.99, hitting its lowest intraday level since May 2017.
Samsung BioLogics  207940.KS  surged as much as 4.8 percent on
the market's open after Biogen  BIIB.O  said on Thursday it
exercised its call option to purchase additional shares of a
joint venture with Samsung BioLogics.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1TV00E

** Shares of South Korean cement makers rose after the two
Koreas agreed on Thursday to co-operate in modernising and
connecting cross-border roads. Shares of Hyundai Cement
 006390.KS  jumped 19.5 percent while Korea Cement  198440.KQ 
gained 15.1 percent. Other North Korea-exposed stocks rose,
including Namkwang Engineering & Construction  001260.KS , which
climbed 12.6 percent.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1TV09A
 
** The won was quoted at 1,120.5 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform  KRW=KFTC , 0.33 percent firmer from its
previous close of 1,124.2, which was its lowest since Oct. 2017.
 
** In offshore trading, the won  KRW=  was quoted at 1,119.31
per U.S. dollar, up 0.13 percent from the previous day, while in
one-year non-deliverable forwards  KRWNDFOR=  it was being
transacted at 1,102.3 per dollar. 
 
** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
 .MIAPJ0000PUS  was down 0.02 percent, after U.S. stocks ended
the previous session with mild gains  MKTS/GLOB . Japanese
stocks  .N225  weakened 0.4 percent. 
 
** The KOSPI is down around 6.2 percent so far this year, and
down by 6.54 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. 
 
** Trading volume during the session on the KOSPI index  .KS11 
was 119,259,000 shares and, of the total 873 traded issues, the
number of advancing shares was 280.
 
** Foreigners were net sellers of 65,254 million won worth of
shares.
 
** The U.S dollar has risen 4.96 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 1,125.17 on June 27, 2018.
 
** In money and debt markets, September futures on three-year
treasury bonds  KTBc1  rose 0.03 points to 108.09.
 
** The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was
quoted at 1.65 percent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean
treasury bond yielded 2.113 percent, barely changed from the
previous day's 2.11 percent.

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