Yahoo!  My Yahoo!  Mail
				News Home - Help

		advertisement
Wednesday August 9, 3:11 PM S.Korea won rises despite US rate outlook SEOUL, Aug 9 (Reuters) - The South Korean won reversed early losses to rise against the dollar on Wednesday, as exporters' dollar sales outweighed expectations the Fed would resume raising U.S. interest rates after August. The U.S. Federal Reserve on Tuesday halted a more than two-year series of interest-rate rises, holding its benchmark rate steady at 5.25 percent, but indicated it would resume raising rates if inflationary pressures build up. The won settled at 959.5 per dollar, up from 963.7 per dollar at Tuesday's local close. It earlier fell as low as 966.5, according to dealers. "Investors squared dollar-long positions after buying the U.S. currency heavily in recent days," a foreign bank dealer said. The Bank of Korea is also seen keeping interest rates steady in Thursday's monthly rate-setting meeting, according to a Reuters poll. See [ID:nSEO361939] for details. The Japanese yen, which the won usually follows closely as South Korean exporters compete with Japanese peers in key overseas markets, was quoted at 115.32/36 per dollar, down from 115.22/28 per dollar in late Asian trade on Tuesday. The dollar pulled up from two-month lows against other major currencies, lifted by short-covering after the rate freeze. Seoul shares closed up 0.29 percent, while foreign investors sold a net 96.3 billion won worth of shares on the main board. 0653 GMT 0315 GMT prev close Won 959.5 964.9/5.7 963.7 Yen/won 8.3157/98 8.3404/88 8.3578/36 NDF 1-mth won 958.0/9.0 963.9/4.9 962.3/3.3 NDF 3-mth won 956.2/7.2 962.2/3.2 960.6/1.6 KOSPI 1,314.93 1,304.08 1,311.10