S Korean stocks gain on Sino-US trade hopes; won edges up

Round-up of South Korean financial markets:

South Korean shares gained on Thursday, underpinned by hopes of a Sino-US trade deal early in 2020 and as investors refrained from selling stocks ahead of them trading ex-dividend a day later. The Korean won and the benchmark bond yield rose.

Without fresh catalysts, investors stayed away from big sales of stocks as they have to hold shares till Thursday to ensure dividend payout, said Park Seok-hyun, an analyst at KTB Securities.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he and Chinese President Xi Jinping will have a signing ceremony to sign the first phase of the US-China trade deal agreed to this month. The Seoul stock market's main KOSPI rose 7.85 points, or 0.36 percent, to 2,197.93.

Foreigners were net sellers of 38.4 billion won ($33.07 million) worth of shares on the main board.

The won was quoted at 1,161.8 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.18 percent higher than its previous close at 1,163.9.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,161.3 per US dollar, down 0.1 percent from the previous day, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,159.4 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.09 percent, after US stocks were closed for holiday. Japanese stocks rose 0.60 percent.

The KOSPI has risen 7.69 percent so far this year, and gained 2.3 percent in the previous 30 trading sessions.

The trading volume during the session in the KOSPI index was 562.15 million shares and, of the total traded issues of 909, the number of advancing shares was 608.

The won has lost 4.0 percent against the dollar so far this year.

In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.01 points to 110.54, while the 3-month Certificate of Deposit rate was quoted at 1.53 percent in late afternoon trade.

The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield fell by 0.2 basis points to 1.368 percent in late afternoon trade, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 1.3 basis points to 1.644 percent.