* KOSPI index extends fall, foreigners sell
* Korean won hits near 3-week low vs USD
* South Korea bond yields down
* For the midday report, please click
SEOUL, March 6 (Reuters) – Round-up of South Korean financial markets:
** South Korean shares slipped on Wednesday as renewed tensions between North Korea and the United States dampened market sentiment, while investors awaited fresh clues on the progress of U.S.-China trade talks. The won hit a near three-week low, while benchmark bond yields also declined.
** North Korea has restored part of a missile launch site it began to dismantle after pledging to do so in a first summit with U.S. President Donald Trump last year, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency and two U.S. think tanks reported on Tuesday.
** Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, said the United States would look at ramping up sanctions on North Korea if Pyongyang did not scrap its nuclear weapons programme.
** The benchmark KOSPI index closed down 3.63 points, or 0.17 percent, to 2,175.60 points, extending its losses into a fourth session.
** Foreigners were net sellers of 9.7 billion won worth of shares on the main board.
** The won was quoted at 1,128.8 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.29 percent lower than its previous close at 1,125.5. The currency fell for a fifth straight session, its longest losing streak since October, 2018.
** Local dealers said renewed worries over North Korea and the Chinese yuan’s recent losses weighed on the currency market. The flow of Australian dollars may have been a trigger for the currency moves in emerging markets, reflecting global growth concerns, said one of the dealers.
** The Australian economy expanded just 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter, slower than the 0.3 percent increase economists had forecast in a Reuters poll. The Australian dollar hit a two-month low after its economic data release.
** In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,128.9 per U.S. dollar, down 0.4 percent from the previous day, while in one-year non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,127.9 per dollar.
** MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.14 percent, after U.S. stocks ended the previous session with mild losses. Japanese stocks fell 0.60 percent.
** The KOSPI has risen 6.59 percent so far this year, and rose 3.5 percent in the previous 30 trading sessions.
** 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 320.13 million shares and, of the total traded issues of 895, the number of advancing shares was 366.
