Korea’s Won Climbs to Two-Week High as Global Funds Buy Shares

By Kim Kyoungwha

Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- South Korea’s won climbed to the highest in two weeks as a global stocks rally helped revive investors’ appetite for emerging-market assets.

The currency headed for a second weekly advance, paring this year’s loss to 8.6 percent, as global funds bought more local shares than they sold for an eighth day, the longest run of net purchases since April 2007.

“The won should be more fundamentally stable going forward,” said Stewart Newnham, a strategist with Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong. “We are still encouraged that trade is generally heading in the right direction. Financial flows are normalizing rapidly.”

The won rose 0.5 percent to 1,377.35 per dollar as of 9:43 a.m. in Seoul, according to Seoul Money Brokerage Services Ltd. The currency strengthened to 1,359.90, the highest since Jan. 22, and was up 0.2 percent for the week. The Kospi stock index climbed 1.7 percent, extending this week’s advance to 3.1 percent.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kim Kyoungwha in Beijing at kkim19@bloomberg.net;