SEOUL: The South Korean won edged higher against the dollar early on Friday as foreign investors extended net stock buying into a second session on hopes the impact from the unrest in Libya would not grow further.
The won stood at 1,117.4 per dollar as of 0045 GMT after rising as high as 1,115.5 from Thursday's domestic close of 1,119.9. It was headed for a weekly gain of around 1 percent as foreign investors returned to the local stock market.
"The level of concern about the Libya situation has eased considerably as traders don't expect any additional shocks for now," said a domestic bank dealer.
Foreign investors bought a net 139 billion won worth of stocks on Seoul's main stock exchange by 0045 GMT, pushing up the KOSPI by three-quarters of a percent.
Traders were still cautious over whether the Bank of Korea would raise interest rates next week to contain inflation expectations or keep them on hold another month to support the economy faced uncertainty due to the situation in the Middle East.
In bond futures trading, the March contract on 3-year treasury bonds fell 0.05 points to 102.65 as losses in US Treasury debt prices overnight further dented trading sentiment already hurt by strong data on Thursday.
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