Round-up of South Korean financial markets:
** South Korean shares edged down on Thursday, the last trading day of 2021, to end the year 3.6% higher, in thin trading as investors refrained from making big bets. The Korean won weakened, while the benchmark bond yield rose.
** The benchmark fell 15.64 points, or 0.52%, to 2,977.65 as of 06:32 GMT. The index has gained 3.6% this year after a 30.8% rise in 2020.
** Among the heavyweights, technology giant Samsung Electronics fell 0.63% and peer SK Hyni rose 3.15%, while LG Chem fell 2.07% and Naver fell 0.92%.
** Overall, the stocks struggled to cope with risks related to coronavirus this year, while technology and chip shares led some gains.
** Thursday was an uneventful last trading day of the year where some offloaded shares following ex-dividend date, said Seo Sang-young, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities.
** Foreigners were net sellers of 222.4 billion won worth of shares on the main board.
** The won was quoted at 1,188.8 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform , 0.19% lower than its previous close at 1,186.5.
** In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,189.3 per dollar, down 0.4% from the previous day, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,190.4.
** The trading volume during the session in the KOSPI index .KS11 was 454.04 million shares. Of the total 931 issues traded, 377 shares advanced.
** The won has lost 8.6% against the dollar so far this year.
** The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by 1.5 basis points to 1.798%, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 6.3 basis points to 2.243%.
(Reporting by Cynthia Kim; additional reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)
