S.Korea stocks fall as China-U.S. trade war escalates; won steady
19/06/2018 03:31
* KOSPI index falls, foreigners sell
* Korean won inches up against U.S. dollar
* South Korea bond yields steady
SEOUL, June 19 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean
financial markets:
** South Korea's KOSPI stock index .KS11 sagged, while the won
KRWE=KFTC gained slightly on Tuesday after U.S. President
Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on Chinese goods if Beijing
increases tariffs again, escalating the tit-for-tat trade war
between the world's two biggest economies. Bond yields rose.
** At 0214 GMT, the KOSPI was down 19.75 points or 0.83 percent
at 2,356.49. Shares of Samsung Biologics 207940.KS dropped as
much as 5.3 percent, while LG Chem 051910.KS slipped up to 3.3
percent, marking their biggest percentage loss since May 30.
** U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Monday to impose a
10 percent tariff on $200 billion of Chinese goods, and said he
had asked U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to
identify the Chinese products to be subject to the new tariffs.
He said the move was in retaliation for China's decision to
raise tariffs on $50 billion in U.S. goods. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1TK1XD
** South Korea's railway-related firms and cement producers rose
on expectations to benefit from any inter-Korean infrastructure
projects after the United States and South Korea agreed to
suspend a joint military drill scheduled for August. Shares of
Daea TI 045390.KQ gained as much as 9.2 percent to the highest
since June 8, while Ssangyong Cement 003410.KS jumps 6.9
percent. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1TL0E5
** The won was quoted at 1,104.5 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform KRW=KFTC , 0.03 percent firmer than its
previous close at 1,104.8.
** In offshore trading, the won KRW= was quoted at 1,104.5 per
U.S. dollar, down 0.18 percent from the previous session, while
in one-year non-deliverable forwards KRWNDFOR= it was being
asked at 1,087.4 per dollar.
** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS was down 1.11 percent, after U.S. stocks ended
the previous session with mild losses MKTS/GLOB . Japanese
stocks .N225 weakened 0.99 percent.
** The KOSPI is down around 3.7 percent so far this year, and
slipped 5.53 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
.KS11 was 266,819,000 shares and, of the total traded issues
of 884, the number of advancing shares was 189.
** Foreigners were net sellers of 92,682 million won worth of
shares.
** The U.S dollar rose 3.58 percent 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 1,106.6 on June 19, 2018.
** In money and debt markets, June futures on three-year
treasury bonds KTBc1 rose 0.02 points to 108.06.
** The benchmark 3-year Korean treasury bond yielded 2.178
percent, barely changed from the previous day's 2.18 percent.
(Reporting by Joori Roh, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
((joori.roh@thomsonreuters.com;))