S.Korean stocks gain as yuan pauses for breath; down 3% for week

YG Entertainment

09/08/2019 08:15

* KOSPI index rises, foreigners net sellers
    * Korean won weakens slightly vs dollar
    * South Korea benchmark bond yield rises
    * For the midday report, please click  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2550Q7

    SEOUL, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean financial
markets:  
South Korean shares closed nearly 1% higher on Friday as a
stabilised Chinese yuan supported sentiment, but fresh concerns
over the Sino-U.S. bruising tariff tussle capped further gains.
The Korean won weakened, while the benchmark bond yield rose.
    
** China's yuan dipped against the dollar as traders awaited
Beijing and Washington's next moves in their trade tariff
dispute, taking a breather after a rapid sell-off earlier this
week that sparked fears of an all-out currency war.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N25510N
    
** Lingering worries over their trade spat capped gains of Asian
stocks after Bloomberg reported that Washington is delaying a
decision about licences for U.S. firms to restart trade with
Huawei Technologies  HWT.UL .  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN2541NH
    
** China lowered its official yuan midpoint yet again, but the
pace of its weakness has slowed, while the won has stabilised a
bit, said Noh Dong-kil, an analyst at NH Investment and
Securities. Given the U.S. delay on Huawei, it's hard to say
sentiment is positive, he added. 
    
** The Seoul stock market's main KOSPI  .KS11  closed up 17.14
points or 0.89% at 1,937.75 points. 
    
** The won was quoted at 1,210.5 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform  KRW=KFTC , 0.11% lower than its previous
close at 1,209.2.
    
** The benchmark index and the Korean won ended lower for a
third consecutive week, dropping 3% and 1% from the previous
week, respectively. 
        
** Shares of YG Entertainment  122870.KQ  ended down 11% after
the police launched a preliminary investigation into the
company's founder on suspected criminal activity related to
gambling.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N25503V
    
** Shares of South Korean cosmestic firm Kolmar Korea
 161890.KS  lost 4.9% after its chairman showed employees a
video praising Japan's prime minister amid a bitter trade row
between the two Asian nations.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N25512E
        
** Foreigners were net sellers of 1.9 billion won ($1.57
million) worth of shares on the main board. 
     
** In offshore trading, the won  KRW=  was quoted at 1,209.9 per
U.S. dollar, down 0.2% from the previous session, while in
non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract
 KRW1MNDFOR=  was quoted at 1,208.9 per dollar.
     
** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
 .MIAPJ0000PUS  was up 0.23%, after U.S. stocks jumped. Japanese
stocks  .N225  rose 0.44%.  MKTS/GLOB 
     
** The KOSPI dropped 5.06% so far this year, and lost 10.0% in
the previous 30 trading sessions.
     
** The current price-to-earnings ratio is 12.10, the dividend
yield is 1.28% and the market capitalisation is 1,242.04
trillion won.
     
** The trading volume during the session in the KOSPI index
 .KS11  was 644.23 million shares and, of the total traded
issues of 894, the number of advancing shares was 535.
     
** The won lost 7.8% against the U.S dollar so far this year.
     
** In money and debt markets, September futures on three-year
treasury bonds  KTBc1  fell 0.08 points to 111.18, while the
3-month Certificate of Deposit rate was quoted at 1.49%.
     
** The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by 2.1
basis points to 1.186%, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose
by 1.6 basis points to 1.285%.

($1 = 1,209.8700 won)

 (Reporting by Hayoung Choi, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
 ((hayoung.choi@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 3704 5643;))