South Korean stocks rise as trade worries ease

SEOUL: Round-up of South Korean financial markets:

** South Korean shares climbed on Tuesday as concerns over the latest escalation in Sino-U.S. trade row faded, but the gains were limited ahead of the weightage changes in MSCI EM index. The Korean won and the benchmark bond yield rose.

** The Seoul stock market's main KOSPI closed up 8.29 points, or 0.43%, at 1,924.60 points.

** U.S. President Donald Trump predicted a trade deal with China after positive gestures by Beijing, calming global markets that have been battered by new tariffs from the world's two largest economies.

** The broader market was boosted by Trump's comments, while foreigners' net selling was related to the rebalancing of MSCI, said Lee Won, an analyst at Bookook Securities.

** The MSCI weighting changes take effect based on Tuesday's closing prices and this made some investors cautious about possibly big sales.

** Foreigners were net sellers of 185.1 billion won ($152.6 million) worth of shares on the main board.

** The won was quoted at 1,211.2 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.54% higher than its previous close at 1,217.8.

** In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,210.8 per U.S. dollar, up 0.1% from the previous day, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract  was quoted at 1,209.9 per dollar.

** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan  was up 0.31%, after U.S. stocks closed up . Japanese stocks rose 0.96%.

** The KOSPI has fallen 5.70% so far this year, and lost 8.2% in the previous 30 trading sessions.

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

** Trading volume during the session in the KOSPI index was 419.37 million shares and, of the total traded issues of 892, the number of advancing shares was 467.

** The won has lost 7.9% against the U.S dollar so far this year.

** In money and debt markets, September futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.17 points to 111.21, while the 3-month Certificate of Deposit rate was quoted at 1.49%.

** The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by 4.5 basis points to 1.165%, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 3.8 basis points to 1.228%.