S.Korean stocks end lower; select aviation shares drag

Trinity Airways Co

13/03/2019 06:57

* KOSPI index drops, foreigners net buyers
    * Korean won sags versus U.S. dollar
    * South Korea benchmark bond yield falls
    * For the midday report, please click  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2100AJ

    SEOUL, March 13 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean
financial markets:
    
** South Korea's KOSPI stock index  .KS11  ended lower on
Wednesday as investors cautiously watched the development of
U.S.-China trade talks, while select aviation shares dragged.
Both the Korean won and the benchmark bond yield fell.
 
** The Seoul stock market's main KOSPI ended down 8.77 points or
0.41 percent to 2,148.41 points.
    
** The United States and China may be in the final weeks of
discussions to hammer out a deal to ease their tit-for-tat
tariff dispute, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said
on Tuesday, but he cautioned that major issues remained.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N20Z0NP
    
** Some of South Korea's airline stocks stumbled in the
aftermath of crash of Boeing's  BA.N  737 MAX 8 jet in Ethiopia;
shares of T'way Air  091810.KS  closed down 4.3 percent, while
Korean Air Lines  003490.KS  and JejuAir  089590.KS  shrank 2.5
percent and 3.4 percent, respectively.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2100KB

** Shares of YG Entertaintment  122870.KQ  jumped 5.2 percent
after the agency cancelled contract with scandal-hit singer
Seungri, who was charged for providing prostitutes to investors.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N21019Z
 
** Foreigners were net buyers of 102.0 billion won ($90.05
million) worth of shares on the main board. 
    
** The won was quoted at 1,132.6 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform  KRW=KFTC , 0.25 percent lower than its
previous close at 1,129.8.
   
** In offshore trading, the won  KRW=  was quoted at 1,132.7 per
U.S. dollar, down 0.5 percent from the previous day, while in
one-year non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract
 KRW1MNDFOR=  was quoted at 1,130.7 per dollar.
    
** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
 .MIAPJ0000PUS  was down 0.35 percent, after U.S. stocks were
mixed  MKTS/GLOB . Japanese stocks  .N225  fell 0.99 percent.
    
** The KOSPI has risen 5.27 percent so far this year, and rose
1.4 percent in the previous 30 trading sessions.
    
** 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 277.85 million shares and, of the total traded
issues of 898, the number of advancing shares was 403.
    
** The won has lost 1.5 percent against the U.S dollar this
year.
    
** In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year
treasury bonds  KTBc1  rose 0.03 points to 109.28, while the
3-month Certificate of Deposit rate was quoted at 1.89 percent.
    
** The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield fell by 1.4
basis points to 1.797 percent, while the benchmark 10-year yield
fell by 2.7 basis points to 1.966 percent.


($1 = 1,132.7100 won)

 (Reporting by Hayoung Choi; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
 ((hayoung.choi@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 3704 5643; Reuters
Messaging: hayoung.choi.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))