SEOUL: The South Korean won and shares both strengthened early on Tuesday as the US dollar took a breather as investors pocketed gains from the greenback's recent rally.
The influence pedalling scandal engulfing President Park Geun-hye's government had little impact on South Korean markets though opposition parties began collecting signatures for a parliamentary motion to impeach Park, and were reviewing chances of successfully impeaching her.
The won stood at 1,175.0 against the dollar as of 0223 GMT, up 1.0 percent compared to Monday's close of 1,186.6.
The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) was up 0.8 percent at 1,982.10 points.
"The greenback rallied for nearly ten days, which means that the global market has reacted too much and needed to cool down a bit," said Jeong My-young, a foreign exchange analyst at Samsung Futures.
Jeong added that the won could strengthen to 1,160 in the near term, but it's hard to predict its future movement since the dollar is expected to rebound soon.
Foreign investors were poised to be buyers, purchasing a net 70.0 billion Korean won ($59.63 million) worth of KOSPI shares near mid-session, buttressing the index.
Oil refiner S-Oil Corp rose 3.1 percent and SK Innovation Co Ltd nearly 4 percent as global oil prices rose.
Decliners outnumbered advancers 412 to 370.
December futures on three-year treasury bonds gained 0.11 point to 109.43.
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