South Korea stocks begin 2022 with mild gains on trade data boost

SEOUL: Round-up of South Korean financial markets:

** South Korean shares closed higher on Monday, in their first trading day of 2022, as retail and foreign investors bought stocks after solid trade and PMI data. The Korean won weakened, while the benchmark bond yield rose.

** The benchmark KOSPI closed up 11.12 points, or 0.37%, at 2,988.77, after having gained as much as 1.11%.

** Among the heavyweights, chip giant Samsung Electronics rose 0.38%, while biopharmaceutical firm Samsung Biologics and platform company Kakao added 0.89% and 1.78%, respectively.

** Aiding sentiment, South Korea's December exports data expanded 18.3% year-on-year to a record $60.74 billion, marking a 14th straight month of expansion, while the pace of growth for the whole of 2021 marked the fastest in 11 years.

** Meanwhile, separate data showed the country's factory activity expanded at its fastest pace in three months.

** "The cheering 'New Year' mood lifted KOSPI, with December exports data showing a solid growth ... Eyes are on Chinese manufacturing PMI and US ISM manufacturing data due later this week," said Na Jeong-hwan, an analyst at Cape Investment & Securities.

** On the main KOSPI board, foreigners bought net 270.4 billion won ($226.90 million) worth of shares.

** The won ended at 1,191.8 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, down 0.25%.

** In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,192.0 per dollar, down 0.3%, while in non-deliverable forward trading, its one-month contract was quoted at 1,192.4.

** In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.24 point to 108.87.

** The benchmark 10-year yield rose by 6.6 basis points to 2.321%.