Round- KOSPI stock index closed at its lowest since May last year as the Turkish crisis also hit Asia’s fourth largest economy. The won dropped as investors fled to safer havens, while bond yields rose.
The KOSPI ended down 34.34 points or 1.50 percent at 2,248.45, in line with other Asian countries.
The won was quoted at 1,133.9 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.44 percent weaker than its previous close at 1,128.9, marking the lowest since July 25.
Most leading KOSPI shares were in the red with top biopharmaceutical firms Celltrion and Samsung Biologics down 4.2 pct and 3.9 pct respectively, following a grim outlook by Goldman Sachs.
The third inter-Korean summit, which will take place next month in the North Korean capital Pyongyang, boosted steel and construction shares with exposure to North Korea. Moonbae Steel , which soared as much as 15 percent intraday, ended up 4.9 percent.
South Korean finance minister Kim Dong-yeon said it will spend $4.4 billion next year on blockchain and AI industries, noting drones, self-driving cars, automated factories, hydrogen vehicles and bio-health sectors as the country’s growth drivers.
In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,133.95 per US dollar, down 0.42 percent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forwards it was being transacted at 1,117.75 per dollar.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 1.40 percent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses. Japanese stocks weakened 1.98 percent.
The KOSPI is down around 7.5 percent so far this year, and down by 1.86 percent in the previous 30 days.
The current price-to-earnings ratio is 12.10, the dividend yield is 1.28 percent and the market capitalisation is 1,242.04 trillion won.
The trading volume during the session on the KOSPI index was 330,544,000 shares and, of the total 898 traded issues, the number of advancing shares was 83.
Foreigners were net sellers of 172,309 million won worth of shares.
The U.S dollar has risen 6.34 percent against the won this year. The won’s high for the year is 1,053.55 per dollar on April 2 and low is 1,140.4 on July 19. ** In money and debt markets, September futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.02 points to 108.35.
The Korean 3-month Certificate of Deposit benchmark rate was quoted at 1.65 percent, while the benchmark 3-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.051 percent, higher than the previous day’s 2.04 percent.
Source: Brecorder
