Seoul: Stocks erase earlier gains to end lower; won steady

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index shed earlier gains to end in a negative territory on Tuesday, as local institutions increased their net selling of equities. The Korean won ended slightly higher, while bond yields rose.

At 0632 GMT, the KOSPI was down 11.57 points or 0.47 per cent at 2,449.81. 

The won was quoted at 1,076.5 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.07 per cent firmer than its previous close of 1,077.2.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,076.4 per US dollar, up 0.24 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being asked at 1,059.8 per dollar. 

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.53 per cent, after U.S. stocks ended the previous session with mild gains. Japanese stocks rose 0.18 per cent. The KOSPI dropped around 0.2 per cent so far this year, and gained 1.39 per cent in the previous 30 days. 

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

The trading volume during the session on the KOSPI index was 702,950,000 shares, and of the total traded issues of 883, the number of advancing shares was 226.

Foreigners were net sellers of 33,514 million won worth of shares. The US dollar has risen 0.94 per cent against the won this year. The won's high for the year is 1,053.55 per dollar on April 2, 2018, and low is 1,098.4 on Feb 6 this year.

In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.08 points to 107.44. The Korean three-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.65 per cent, while the benchmark three-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.314 per cent, higher than the previous day's 2.28 per cent.

REUTERS