South Korean stocks snap 3-day rally; Powell's speech in focus

Seoul: Round-up of South Korean financial markets:

** South Korean shares snapped a three-day rally on Thursday as investors remained cautious ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's speech on Friday, after minutes from the U.S. central bank's July meeting cast doubt on aggressive rate cuts. The Korean won weakened, and the benchmark bond yield fell.

** The Seoul stock market's main KOSPI fell 13.64 points or 0.69% to 1,951.01 points

** Foreigners were net sellers of 122.5 billion won worth of shares on the main board.

** The won was quoted at 1,207.4 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.41% lower than its previous close.

** In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,207.1 per U.S. dollar, down 0.5% from the previous day, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract  was quoted at 1,206.1 per dollar.

** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.53%. Japanese stocks rose 0.05%.

** The KOSPI has fallen 4.41% so far this year, and lost 4.3% in the previous 30 trading sessions.

** The current price-to-earnings ratio is 12.10, the dividend yield is 1.28% and the market capitalisation is 1,242.04 trillion won.

** The trading volume during the session in the KOSPI index  was 427.29 million shares and, of the total traded issues of 893, the number of advancing shares was 301.

** The won has lost 7.6% against the U.S dollar so far this year.

** In money and debt markets, September futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.11 points to 111.29, while the 3-month Certificate of Deposit rate was quoted at 1.49%.

** The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield slipped 0.9 basis points to 1.145%, while the benchmark 10-year yield fell 3.4 basis points to 1.243%.