Seoul: Stocks, won gain on revived North Korea-US summit hopes

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI stock index and the won rose on Monday after US President Donald Trump said on Sunday a US team had arrived in North Korea to prepare for a proposed summit between him and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Bond yields were unchanged. At 0205 GMT, the KOSPI was up 16.38 points, or 0.67 per cent, at 2,477.18.

Construction and railway shares surged, including Hyundai Engineering & Construction which jumped 28 per cent and Halla Corp's 29 per cent increase.  The won was quoted at 1,074 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform , 0.37 per cent firmer than its previous close at 1,078.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,073.46 per US dollar, up 0.36 per cent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,057.65 per dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.09 per cent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses . Japanese stocks weakened 0.04 per cent. The KOSPI is down around 0.3 per cent so far this year, and up by 0.41 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 366,912,000 shares and, of the total traded issues of 884, the number of advancing shares was 571. 

Foreigners were net sellers of 95,733 million won worth of shares. The US dollar has risen 0.66 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, 2018. In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.04 points to107.87.REUTERS