South Korea stocks slip more than a 1 pct on U.S.-China trade tensions

Seoul: Round-up of South Korean financial markets:

** South Korea's KOSPI stock index fell on Tuesday hit by tensions stemmed from U.S.-China trade stand-off and North Korea's testing of strike drill. The Korean won weakened and the benchmark bond yield fell.

** The Seoul stock market's main KOSPI fell 22.39 points, or 1.02 percent, to 2,173.93 points at 0157 GMT.

** Foreigners were net buyers of 144.2 billion won ($123.39 million) worth of shares on the main board.

** Investors' sentiment was dented due to unexpected testing of strike drill by North Korea and U.S.-China trade stand-off; need to monitor development of the two issues, says Kim Young-hwan, an analyst at KB Securities.

** South Korean shares exposed to North Korea fall after North Korea conducted a "strike drill" on Saturday; shares of defence firms rise.

** The purpose of the drill was to test performance of "large-caliber long-range multiple rocket launchers and tactical guided weapons by defense units," the Korean Central News Agency said.

** U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday slammed China over its trade practices, saying the United States was losing billions to Beijing and vowing to protect American commerce as tension escalated following his weekend threat to hike tariffs.

** The won was quoted at 1,171.3 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.11 percent lower than its previous close at 1,170.0.

** In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,169.3 per U.S. dollar, down 0.1 percent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,167.9 per dollar.

** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.38 percent, after U.S. stocks fell. Japanese stocks fell 0.96 percent.

** The KOSPI has risen 6.51 percent so far this year, and rose 0.5 percent in the previous 30 trading sessions.

** 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 211.83 million shares and, of the total traded issues of 891, the number of advancing shares was 146.

** The won has lost 4.7 percent against the U.S dollar this year.

** In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.08 points to 109.53, while the 3-month Certificate of Deposit rate was quoted at 1.84 percent.

** The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield fell by 2.2 basis points to 1.717 percent, while the benchmark 10-year yield fell by 3.1 basis points to 1.869 percent.