Won Regains Some Poise

The won is slightly stronger to start the day on Tuesday, USD/KRW last down 0.25 at 1123.50, the greenback paused its rally on Tuesday which has helped KRW regain some poise after dropping yesterday. Equity markets in the region were around 1% higher shortly after the open, but have since given back some of the move.

• New virus cases have risen in South Korea. In the past 24 hours 444 new cases were recorded, from 344 yesterday. The country launched a mass vaccination campaign last Friday starting with the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and extended the current social distancing rules for another two weeks through March 14; 87,428 people have been vaccinated so far.
• In terms of flows foreign funds were buyers of bonds to the tune of $311.8m in listed bonds on Feb. 26, and were net buyers of $237m in equities yesterday.
• Markets look ahead to the weekly briefing from the finance ministry at 0530GMT/0130KST with participants on the lookout regarding the KRW 9.9tn of extra issuance to finance the budget.