South Korean won pares early gains as President Yoon refuses to step down

Round-up of South Korean financial markets:

** The South Korean won pared early gains on Thursday morning as political turmoil continued after President Yoon Suk Yeol refused to step down amid parliament's push to impeach him.

** The won was unchanged from its previous closing price of 1,430.9 as of 1252 GMT in the onshore market.

** The benchmark KOSPI KOSPI was up 13.95 points, or 0.57%, at 2,456.46 as of 00:48 GMT.

** President Yoon said he will fight until the last moment with the public amid the opposition's moves to impeach him.

** Among index heavyweights, chipmaker Samsung Electronics 005930 rose 0.56% and peer SK Hynix 000660 gained 1.40%, while battery maker LG Energy Solution 373220 slid 0.13%.

** Hyundai Motor 005380 added 0.96% and sister automaker Kia Corp 000270 gained 1.66%, while search engine Naver 035420 and instant messenger Kakao 035720 were down 1.83% and up 0.67%, respectively.

** Of the total 933 traded issues, 530 shares advanced, while 352 declined.

** Foreigners were net sellers of shares worth 136.8 billion won on the main board on Thursday.

** The won rose as much as 0.1% to 1,428.9 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform USDKRW before paring gains.

** In offshore trading, the won USDKRW was quoted at 1,430.0 per dollar, down 0.2%, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract (KRW1MNDFOR=) was quoted at 1,428.0.

** The KOSPI has fallen 7.49% so far this year, and lost 5.8% in the previous 30 trading sessions.

** The won has lost 9.9% against the dollar so far this year.

** In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds (KTBc1) fell 0.03 point to 106.74.

** The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield (KR3YT=RR) rose by 0.9 basis points to 2.544%, while the benchmark 10-year yield KR10 rose by 0.5 bps to 2.695%.