SEOUL: The South Korean won fell to a one-month low on Thursday in its first trading session after a three-day holiday break, pressured by an extended dollar rally which has seen the greenback hit multi-year highs against a basket of currencies.
The won fell more than 1 percent to 1,035.4 to
the dollar in early morning trade, its lowest intraday level since Aug. 8. South Korean markets were closed Monday through Wednesday for the country's autumn thanksgiving holidays.
The dollar has sharply extended broad gains since last week, helped by expectations that the U.S Federal Reserve will raise interest rates sooner rather than later, as well as slowing economies in Japan and the euro zone.
"The US economy is still on the recovery path despite some weak job numbers on the surface and there's a lot of anxiety over the policy hawks whose voices are growing in influence," said Park Jung-woo, an analyst at Samsung Securities.
The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) was down 0.3 percent at 2,043.88 points as of 0202 GMT, with investors cautious ahead of a South Korean central bank meeting on Friday and US central bank policy meetings early next week.
But Apple-related shares jumped after the tech giant unveiled its highly anticipated iPhone 6 on Tuesday, a boon for its major South Korean suppliers of chips and displays.
SK Hynix shares rallied 3.9 percent, while LG Display gained 2.2 percent.
Hyundai Motor Co shares fell 1.8 percent amid growing fears that a weaker yen could improve the price competitiveness of its Japanese peers.
September futures on three-year treasury bonds were unchanged and trading at 107.06.
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