S.Korea stocks, won cheer on Hyundai Motor Group surge, U.S.-China trade hopes

Hyundai Glovis

12/12/2018 02:25

* KOSPI index jumps, foreigners sell
    * Korean won gains against dollar
    * South Korea bond yields up

    SEOUL, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean financial
markets:
    ** South Korea's KOSPI stock index  .KS11  buoyed on
Wednesday as a surge in the country's biggest carmaker Hyundai
Motor and its affiliates boosted investor sentiment. U.S.-China
trade hopes lifted the market after the U.S. President Trump
sounded upbeat about a trade deal with China. The Korean won
rose while bond yields also rose.
    
    ** Hyundai Motor Co  005380.KS  appointed President Albert
Biermann as its first foreign head of research and development
(R&D) as part of a sweeping reshuffle which helped send the
South Korean automaker's shares surging more than 7 percent on
Wednesday.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1YH15A

    ** In an interview with Reuters, U.S. President Donald Trump
said on Tuesday he would intervene in the Justice Department's
case against a top executive at China's Huawei Technologies
 HWT.UL  if it would serve national security interests or help
close a trade deal with China.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1YG2JR
    
    ** Trump also said that China was buying a "tremendous
amount" of U.S. soybeans and that trade talks with Beijing were
already underway by telephone, with more meetings likely among
U.S. and Chinese officials.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1YG2JE
    
    ** At 02:11 GMT, the KOSPI was up 24.70 points or 1.20
percent at 2,077.67.
    
    ** Hyundai Motor Group shares jumped after appointment of a
new R&D chief. Shares of Hyundai Motor Co rose as much as 8.1
percent to highest since Oct. 11, while its auto parts
affiliates Hyundai Mobis  012330.KS  and Hyundai Wia  011210.KS 
were trading up 7.6 percent and 11.0 percent, respectively. The
company's logistics arm Hyundai Glovis  086280.KS  also gained
8.8 percent.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1YH083

    ** Hydrogen-powered car parts companies surged as Hyundai
Motor Co and its suppliers plan to invest $6.8 billion in
research and development and to expand facilities related to
fuel cell systems. Iljin Diamond Co Ltd  081000.KS , Neuros Co
Ltd  126870.KQ , GMB Korea Corp  013870.KS  sky-rocketed 22.3
percent, 14.0 percent and 13.2 percent, respectively.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1YH15I
    
    ** The won was quoted at 1,126.8 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform  KRW=KFTC , 0.29 percent firmer than its
previous close at 1,130.1.
    
    ** In offshore trading, the won  KRW=  was quoted at
1,127.25 per U.S. dollar, up 0.11 percent from the previous day,
while in one-year non-deliverable forwards  KRWNDFOR=  it was
being asked at 1,107.35 per dollar.
    
    ** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside
Japan  .MIAPJ0000PUS  was up 1.02 percent, after U.S. stocks
ended the previous session with losses  MKTS/GLOB . Japanese
stocks  .N225  rose 1.95 percent.
    
    ** The KOSPI is down around 16.8 percent so far this year,
and down by 1.90 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 193,074,000 shares and, of the total traded issues
of 892, the number of advancing shares was 623.
    
    ** Foreigners were net sellers of 18,453 million won worth
of shares.
    
    ** The U.S dollar has risen 5.71 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  fell 0.04 point to 109.18.
    
    ** The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate
was quoted at 1.9 percent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean
treasury bond yielded 1.809 percent, higher than the previous
day's 1.79 percent.

 (Reporting by Joori Roh; Editing by Sunil Nair)
 ((joori.roh@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 3704 5642; Reuters
Messaging: joori.roh.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))