Chip giants support South Korean stocks; won rises

YG Plus

21/03/2019 06:58

* KOSPI index ends higher, foreigners net buyers
    * Korean won gains versus U.S. dollar
    * South Korea benchmark bond yield falls
    * For the midday report, please click  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2175OU

    SEOUL, March 21 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean
financial markets:
    
** South Korea's KOSPI stock index  .KS11  rose on Thursday,
though it gave up some early gains over growth concerns, as
rallying chip shares supported the broader market. The Korean
won strengthened while the benchmark bond yield fell.
 
** The Seoul stock market's main KOSPI ended up 7.78 points or
0.36 percent to 2,184.88 points. 
    
** Shares of South Korean chip giants Samsung Electronics
 005930.KS  and SK Hynix  000660.KS  jumped 4.1 percent and 7.7
percent, respectively, after U.S. chipmaker Micron Technology
 MU.O  forecast recovery in memory market.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2180PS
    
** Local markets opened up, boosted by Micron's outlook, but
sentiments were dented in the late trading by growth worries,
said Seo Sang-young, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities. 
    
** The latest U.S. economic projections showed policymakers at
the median see its economy growing only 2.1 percent in 2019, a
full percentage point below the roughly 3 percent growth that
was seen in 2018 and which the Trump administration contends
will continue.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nW1N20H00I

** YG Entertainment  122870.KQ , one of South Korea's top talent
management agencies, and affiliate YG Plus  037270.KS  fell as
National Tax Service launched a probe into the agency amid
snowballing sex scandals in the nation's music industry.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2180K0
 
** Foreigners were net buyers of 484.4 billion won worth of
shares on the main board. 
    
** The won was quoted at 1,127.7 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform  KRW=KFTC , 0.24 percent higher than its
previous close at 1,130.4.
 
** In offshore trading, the won  KRW=  was quoted at 1,127.5 per
U.S. dollar, down 0.2 percent from the previous day, while in
one-year non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract
 KRW1MNDFOR=  was quoted at 1,126.2 per dollar.
    
** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
 .MIAPJ0000PUS  was up 0.51 percent, after U.S. stocks rallied
on dovish Fed statement  MKTS/GLOB . Japanese stocks  .N225 
markets are closed for a public holiday. 
    
** The KOSPI has risen 7.05 percent so far this year, and has
fallen 1.3 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 337.32 million shares and, of the total traded
issues of 897, the number of advancing shares was 236.
    
** The won has lost 1.1 percent against the U.S dollar this
year.
    
** In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year
treasury bonds  KTBc1  rose 0.10 points to 109.35, while the
3-month Certificate of Deposit rate was quoted at 1.90 percent.
    
** The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield fell 1.7
basis points to 1.795 percent, while the benchmark 10-year yield
fell 4.3 basis points to 1.935 percent.

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