S.Korean stocks drop as chipmakers fall; Trump-Xi meeting awaited
30/11/2018 07:10
* KOSPI index closes down, foreigners sell
* Korean won falls vs dollar
* South Korean bond yields edge higher
* For the midday report, please click urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1Y51NU
SEOUL, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean financial
markets:
** South Korea's KOSPI stock index .KS11 closed lower on
Friday, weighed down by chipmakers, as global investors awaited
the high-stakes trade talks between President Xi Jinping and
Donald Trump this weekend. The Korean won edged down, while bond
yields rose.
** South Korea's central bank raised its policy interest
rate on Friday for the first time in a year in a widely expected
move aimed mainly at containing a boom in parts of the country's
property market. Analysts said heightened global markets turmoil
over the past few months has made it difficult for the Bank of
Korea (BOK) to find the perfect timing to adjust policy.
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1Y12FK
** Growth in China's vast manufacturing sector stalled for
the first time in over two years in November as new orders
shrank. The official Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), released
on Friday, fell to 50 in November, missing market expectations
and down from 50.2 in October. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1Y32K0
** At 06:32 GMT, the KOSPI closed down 17.24 points or 0.82
percent at 2,096.86. The benchmark index rose 1.9 percent on a
weekly basis, while it rose 3.3 percent on a monthly basis,
posting the biggest monthly gain since January.
** KOSPI fell as semiconductor shares dipped towards the end
of the session, said Kim Ji-hyung, an analyst at Hanyang
Securities. BOK's rate hike had limited effect as it was widely
expected, Kim added.
** South Korea's chip giants Samsung Electronics 005930.KS
and SK Hynix 000660.KS closed down 3.0 percent and 2.7
percent, respectively. World Semiconductor Trade Statistics
(WSTS) said in its report https://bit.ly/2QpP1SU that it
forecasts the memory segment to "show a slightly negative growth
after the extraordinary growth in 2018."
** Hyundai Motor Co 005380.KS closed up 7.0 percent,
posting its biggest gain since March 21, 2017, after the company
said it would buy back 255 billion won ($228.3 million) worth of
common and preferred stocks to stabilise its stock prices and
boost investor returns. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1Y501I
** Samsung Electronics' supplier Toptec Co Ltd 108230.KQ
plunged down 19.6 percent after South Korean prosecutors on
Thursday charged the chief executive and eight employees of the
company for selling information earlier this year about
Samsung's organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels.
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1Y509F
** South Korea's construction machinery manufacturer Doosan
Bobcat Inc 241560.KS hit a near four-month low as parent
company Doosan Infracore Co Ltd 042670.KS said it sold shares
worth 149.1 billion won ($133.08 mln) in Doosan Bobcat. Doosan
Bobcat ended 7.3 percent lower. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1Y501C
** The won was quoted at 1,121.2 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform KRW=KFTC , 0.18 percent weaker than its
previous close at 1,119.2. For the week, the currency rose 0.8
percent, while it jumped 1.6 percent on a monthly basis, hitting
its biggest monthly gain since March 31.
** In offshore trading, the won KRW= was quoted at
1,120.67 per U.S. dollar, down 0.37 percent from the previous
day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards KRWNDFOR= it
was being asked at 1,100.35 per dollar.
** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside
Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was down 0.22 percent, after U.S. stocks
ended the previous session with mild losses MKTS/GLOB .
Japanese stocks .N225 rose 0.4 percent.
** The KOSPI is down around 14.3 percent so far this year,
and up by 1.59 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 410,584,000 shares and, of the total traded issues
of 894, the number of advancing shares was 365.
** Foreigners were net sellers of 140,695 million won worth
of shares.
** The U.S. dollar has risen 5.09 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 1,146.26 on October 11 2018.
** In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year
treasury bonds KTBc1 rose 0.01 points to 108.98.
** The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate
was quoted at 1.88 percent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean
treasury bond yielded 1.893 percent, higher than the previous
day's 1.89 percent.
(Reporting by Joori Roh, Yuna Park; Editing by Amrutha
Gayathri)
((joori.roh@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 3704 5642; Reuters
Messaging: joori.roh.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))