South Korea won, shares fall after soft China trade data

SEOUL: The South Korean won and shares fell on Tuesday morning, set to end a five-day winning spell, after news China's exports and imports fell substantially in September.

China is South Korea's biggest trading partner.

The South Korean won was down 0.5 per cent at 1,149.5 per dollar as of 0301 GMT.

China's exports fell 1.1 per cent from a year earlier in September in yuan-denominated terms, while imports tumbled 17.7 per cent.

"Before the China data, the dollar fell to a technically meaningful level against major riskier currencies, and then the soft data was a trigger sending market sentiment to risk-averse from risk-friendly," said Jung Kyung-parl, a foreign-exchange analyst at Hana Futures.

Jung noted risk-averse sentiment would continue for a while if Chinese shares fell below the recent low of 3,021 points and the dollar gained at faster than it had fallen in recent days.

On the stock market, the South Korea Composite Stock Price Index ( KOSPI) was down 0.4 per cent at 2,013.62 points. Losers outnumbered gainers by 17 to 10.

The index touched two-month highs in the previous session and gained 2.5 per cent over the last five days.

Refinery shares fell after oil prices settled 5 per cent down overnight. SK Innovation Co Ltd slid 3.5 per cent and S-Oil Corp lost 2 per cent.

Meanwhile, foreigners were set to be net buyers for a fifth straight session, purchasing a net 36 billion won ($31.41 million)of KOSPI shares by midday.

December futures on three-year treasury bonds were up 0.02 points at 109.65.