S.Korea stocks, won drop on concerns over Trump's trade threat

Medipost Co

31/08/2018 03:05

* KOSPI index falls, foreigners sell
    * Korean won falls versus U.S. dollar
    * South Korea bond yields down

    SEOUL, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean financial
markets:
** South Korea's KOSPI stock index  .KS11  and the won edged
down on Friday after a report that U.S. President Donald Trump
was preparing to step up a trade war with Beijing and ready to
impose more tariffs on Chinese imports.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N1VL1AL
 
** At 01:38 GMT, the KOSPI was down 1.51 points or 0.07 percent
at 2,305.84.
    
    ** South Korea's pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms rose
after a local media report that the country's top financial
regulator would revise supervisory standards on accounting rules
for R&D spending. Shares of Samsung Biologics Co Ltd  207940.KS 
climbed as much as 5.2 pct, while Medipost Co Ltd  078160.KQ 
and Hanmi Pharm Co Ltd  128940.KS  gained 7.4 pct and 1.9 pct,
respectively.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1VM187
 
** The won was quoted at 1,113.4 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform  KRW=KFTC , 0.43 percent weaker than its
previous close at 1,108.6. 
 
** In offshore trading, the won  KRW=  was quoted at 1,112.49
per U.S. dollar, up 0.12 percent from the previous day, while in
one-year non-deliverable forwards  KRWNDFOR=  it was being
transacted at 1,094.8 per dollar. 
 
** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
 .MIAPJ0000PUS  was down 0.75 percent, after U.S. stocks ended
the previous session with mild losses  MKTS/GLOB . Japanese
stocks  .N225  weakened 0.29 percent. 
 
** The KOSPI is down around 6.5 percent so far this year, and up
by 0.75 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 77,350,000 shares and, of the total 887 traded
issues, the number of advancing shares was 380.
 
** Foreigners were net sellers of 25,943 million won worth of
shares.
 
** The U.S dollar has risen 4.32 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 1,140.4 on July 19.
 
** In money and debt markets, September futures on three-year
treasury bonds  KTBc1  rose 0.05 points to 108.72.
 
** The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was
quoted at 1.65 percent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean
treasury bond yielded 1.972 percent, lower than the previous
day's 1.98 percent.

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