S.Korean stocks gain as Chinese shares rally; won falls

LB Semicon

04/09/2018 08:05

* KOSPI index rises, foreigners buy
    * Korean won falls versus U.S. dollar
    * South Korea bond yields down
    * For the midday report, please click  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1VQ19Q

    SEOUL, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean financial
markets:
** South Korea's KOSPI stock index  .KS11  rose on Tuesday
tracking the turnaround in Chinese shares, while the escalation
of a tariff war between the United States and China persisted.
Chinese blue-chips  .CSI300  rallied 1.4 percent after five
straight sessions of losses, supported by real estate and
banking stocks. The Korean won dropped and bond yields also
fell.
 
    ** The KOSPI was up 8.69 points, or 0.38 percent, at
2,315.72.
    
    ** Shares exposed to K-pop boyband BTS hiked after the group
topped the Billboard 200 albums chart for the second time this
year, while reports on controversies over South Koreans seeking
military exemption for the band caught attention. LB Semicon
 061970.KQ , whose affiliate holds about 11 percent stake in the
band's management agency Big Hit Entertainment, surged as much
as 25 percent, while GMP Co Ltd  018290.KQ , engaged in the
laminating business, jumped 7.2 pct, on optimism over its
collaboration with BTS on promotional products.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1VQ13E
 
** The won was quoted at 1,114.9 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform  KRW=KFTC , 0.41 percent weaker than its
previous close at 1,110.3. 
 
** In offshore trading, the won  KRW=  was quoted at 1,114.94
per U.S. dollar, down 0.26 percent from the previous day, while
in one-year non-deliverable forwards  KRWNDFOR=  it was being
transacted at 1,098.95 per dollar. 
 
** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
 .MIAPJ0000PUS  was up 0.17 percent, after U.S. stocks ended the
previous session with mild gains  MKTS/GLOB . Japanese stocks
 .N225  weakened 0.05 percent.
 
** The KOSPI is down around 6.5 percent so far this year, and up
by 0.78 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 was
271,789,000 shares and, of the total traded issues of 895, the
number of advancing shares was 470.
 
** Foreigners were net buyers of 14,404 million won worth of
shares.
 
** The U.S. dollar has risen 4.47 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 1,140.4 on July 19 2018.
 
** In money and debt markets, September futures on three-year
treasury bonds  KTBc1  rose 0.04 points to 108.92.
 
** The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was
quoted at 1.65 percent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean
treasury bond yielded 1.914 percent, lower than the previous
day's 1.92 percent.

 (Reporting by Joori Roh; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)
 ((joori.roh@thomsonreuters.com;))