South Korea stocks rise following Wall Street, won steady

SEOUL: Round-up of South Korean financial markets: South Korea's KOSPI stock index rose on Friday, buoyed by gains on Wall Street overnight.

The Korean won was steady while bond yields fell.

At 01:17 GMT, the KOSPI was up 18.42 points, or 0.76 percent, at 2,454.79.

Hyundai Mobis and Hyundai Glovis shares fell as much as 6.3 percent and 7.1 percent, respectively, on worries its parent group's restructuring plan will disadvantage Mobis shareholders.

Kumho Tire Co Inc's shares jumped as much as 16.7 percent ahead of the tyre manufacturer's decision whether to enter court receivership with investors expecting a dramatic agreement between the company and its labour union.

The won was quoted at 1,065.3 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.06 percent firmer than its previous close at 1,065.9.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,064.8 per US dollar, down 0.26 percent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,048.5 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.30 percent, after US stocks ended the previous session with gains. Japanese stocks rose 0.88 percent.

The KOSPI is down around 1.3 percent so far this year, and up by 2.14 percent in the previous 30 days.

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 was 142,292,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 878, the number of advancing shares was 593.

Foreigners were net sellers of 47,308 million won worth of shares.

The U.S dollar has fallen 0.15 percent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,056.67 per dollar on Jan. 14, 2018 and low is 1,098.4 on Feb. 6, 2018.

In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds held steady at 107.7.

The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.65 percent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.223 percent, lower than the previous day's 2.23 percent.