SEOUL: The South Korean won edged down early on Wednesday following comments by senior US Federal Reserve officials that appeared to increase the probability of the Fed starting to cut back stimulus from as early as next month.
The local currency was quoted at 1,117.1 against the dollar as of 0230 GMT in its second day of losses, compared to Tuesday's domestic close at 1,115.5.
"We saw some dollar sales from local exporters early in the session, but they were outweighed by dollar bids from foreign banks that are buying the greenback for cheap," said a local bank dealer in Seoul.
Asian equities fell after Charles Evans, president of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank and Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart reiterated the Fed's plans to cut back on its stimulus some time this year.
Although the dollar stayed down against major currencies, it was favoured against the won, which mirrored the poor performance of other Asian stock markets and currencies on Wednesday as they tracked losses in Wall Street overnight.
Another South Korean bank dealer said the won would stay in a narrow range because the Fed policymakers' comments did not reveal anything new on the timing of when it will start scaling back its bond-buying programme.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index was down 1 percent.
September futures on three-year treasury bonds were down 0.06 points to trade at 105.56 as foreigners sold contracts, traders said.
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