SEOUL: The South Korean won edged up early on Monday, recouping some of last week's steep losses, but investors kept the currency in a tight band while watching geopolitical tensions involving Ukraine after Crimeans voted to be annexed by Russia.
The local currency was quoted at 1,069.6 against the dollar as of 0232 GMT, up 0.3 percent from Friday's domestic close at 1,072.8.
"There seem to be some position corrections in the market, which seemed to have been leaning too far towards dollar-buying," said a foreign-exchange trader in Seoul.
"We've been seeing very short trading patterns recently, and this seems to be in line with that."
The won's rebound was firmly capped by investors' wariness over warnings from the US and European Union of imminent sanctions against Russia, sparked by a vote by Crimean citizens agreeing to join Russia.
Market participants said they were also eyeing a weakening Chinese yuan after the country's central bank doubled the currency's permitted trading band over the weekend.
Another dealer in Seoul said that the won was influenced by the yuan's movements in early trade, but that the South Korean currency was not expected to show big movements on Monday.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index edged up 0.2 percent.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.