Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back

The won is weaker, reversing all of yesterday's move higher. USD/KRW last up 8.80 at 1132.65. The rate remains sandwiched between its 50-day moving average as support and 200-day moving average as resistance, at 1113.32 and 1148.88, respectively.

• The pace of foreign buying in bonds has slowed to a crawl, yesterday foreign funds bought $65.5m of South Korean bonds, down from $686m on Monday and a high of $1.2bn last week. Funds bought $424m of South Korean equities yesterday, switching from sales of $508m on Thursday. The KOSPI is under pressure in early trade on Friday though with foreign investors selling KRW 68.4bn, and local intuitional investors selling KRW 140.9b according to data compiled by Bloomberg – the index Is currently down 1.4%.
• Meanwhile, South Korea is posed to speed up the rollout of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as part of its inoculation campaign as the European Union's medicines regulator assessed that there is no link to blood clots found in some recipients. There were 463 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, staying in the 400s for the third day, as sporadic cluster infections have not shown let up in the greater Seoul area amid increased travels and loosened vigilance against the pandemic.
• Later today the finance Minister Hong holds meeting with officials of ruling party and Blue House at to discuss measures on real estate speculation. Government and BoK officials have highlighted risks of an overheating housing market in the past. In a speech on Monday President Moon pledged to eradicate "deep-rooted evils" related to real estate.