S.Korean shares recover on IT stocks; investors await Sino-U.S. talks

Samsung Electro-Mechanics

29/01/2019 07:36

* KOSPI index rises, foreigners buy
    * Korean won edges up against USD
    * South Korea bond yields up
    * For the midday report, please click  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1ZT0X2

    SEOUL, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean financial
markets:
    
    ** South Korean shares recovered from earlier falls to close
slightly higher on Tuesday, buoyed by IT stocks after Samsung
Electro-Mechanics Co Ltd  009150.KS  posted solid quarterly
earnings, while investors awaited a new round of trade talks
between Chinese and U.S. officials on Wednesday and Thursday.
The Korean won and bond yields rose.
    
    ** The KOSPI stock index  .KS11  closed 6.06 points, or 0.28
percent, higher at 2,183.36.
    
    ** Earlier in the session, the index fell 0.7 percent on
worries of an escalation in Sino-U.S. trade tensions after the
U.S. Justice Department charged China's Huawei Technologies Co
Ltd  HWT.UL  with fraud.
    
    ** Samsung Electro-Mechanics said earlier in the day that
its fourth-quarter operating profit jumped 136 percent to 252
billion won ($225.85 million) from a year earlier.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nS6N1RF02O
    
    ** The company said in its conference call that the supply
of multi-layer ceramic capacitor in the market was not enough
and that the company would expand its capacity, said Jeong Dai,
an analyst with Meritz Securities.
    
    ** Hopes for a better business environment in the IT
industry seem to be continuing since the conference call over SK
Hynix's  000660.KS  earnings, Jeong added. 
    
    ** Shares of Samsung Electro-Mechanics rose 7.1 percent,
while tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd  005930.KS  and SK
Hynix gained 1.0 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively. The
sub-index for electric & electronics  .KS41  advanced 1.1
percent.
    
    ** Samsung Heavy Industries Co Ltd  010140.KS  ended up 2.0
percent after the company said it won an order worth 420 billion
won ($376.41 million) to build two LNG carriers from Celsius
Tankers, which are expected to be delivered by August 2021.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nS6N1ZH01R
        
    ** The won was quoted at 1,116.5 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform  KRW=KFTC , 0.11 percent firmer than its
previous close at 1,117.7, extending gains into a third session.
    
    ** In offshore trading, the won  KRW=  was quoted at
1,116.31 per U.S. dollar, up 0.14 percent from the previous day,
while in one-year non-deliverable forwards  KRWNDFOR=  it was
being asked at 1,100.95 per dollar.
    
    ** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside
Japan  .MIAPJ0000PUS  was down 0.25 percent, after U.S. stocks
ended the previous session with mild losses  MKTS/GLOB .
Japanese stocks  .N225  rose 0.08 percent.
    
    ** The KOSPI is up around 6.7 percent so far this year, and
up by 4.55 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 539,639,000 shares and, of the total traded issues
of 896, the number of advancing shares was 292.
    
    ** Foreigners were net buyers of 139,870 million won worth
of shares.
    
    ** The U.S dollar has risen 0.27 percent against the won
this year. The won's high for the year is 1,113.81 per dollar on
Jan. 11 and low is 1,133.4 on Jan. 21.
    
    ** In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year
treasury bonds  KTBc1  fell 0.02 points to 109.23.
    
    ** The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate
was quoted at 1.86 percent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean
treasury bond yielded 1.822 percent, higher than the previous
day's 1.82 percent.

($1 = 1,115.8000 won)

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