South Korea shares fall most in a month on valuation nerves, HK stamp duty hike

SEOUL: Round-up of South Korean financial markets:

** South Korean shares fell on Wednesday by the most in nearly a month, as valuation concerns and a stamp duty hike in Hong Kong weighed on investor sentiment. Both the won and the benchmark bond yield fell.

** The KOSPI closed down 75.11 points, or 2.45%, at 2,994.98, extending losses to a third session.

** Recent spikes in US Treasury yields have put lofty equity valuations under pressure even as bond markets stabilised.

** US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Tuesday the monetary policy would remain accommodative as the economy still needed support, pulling down the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield.

** Shares of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange operator tumbled 11%, the biggest one-day fall since 2008, after the city's government said it would increase the stamp duty on stock trading.

** Most heavyweights in South Korea slid, with chip giant SK Hynix and internet giant Naver down 1.81% and 4.23%, respectively.

** SK Biopharmaceuticals dropped as much as 13.9% to a record low after parent SK Holdings sold a 1.1 trillion won ($989.88 million) stake in the company in a block deal.

** The country's central bank meets on Thursday where it is widely expected to keep interest rates at record low.

** The trading volume during the session in the KOSPI index was 1,526.87 million shares. Of the total traded issues of 912, the number of advancing shares was only 57.

** Foreigners were net sellers of 426.8 billion won worth of shares on the main board.

** The won ended at 1,112.2 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.14% lower than its previous close.

** In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,112.0, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,111.8.

** The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield fell by 1.7 basis points to 1.006%.