Week 10 - Wednesday (Final News Blog Assignment)

            On Tuesday, as the Japanese yen appreciated, South Korea's stock KOSPI (Korea Composite Price Index) gained 9.40 points or 0.47 percent, to 1,998.97 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Large-cap exporters were the biggest winners as most of the shares appreciated; Korea's largest corporations such as Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motors also increased 0.2 and 0.7 percent respectively. Overnight, the yen appreciated to 99 yen against the United States dollar in the market, which broke a nearly one-month winning streak of the dollar since May 9th. The Korean won was being traded at 1,120.35 won against the dollar at the same time; this was an increase of 7.65 won from Monday.

            Recently, our class had gone over the foreign exchange rates among countries and the impact of them as it either appreciates or depreciates. In this news, when the Japanese yen appreciated against the Korean won, it became cheaper for the Japanese people to use yen to buy the Korean stocks. Because more people bought the stocks, the demand curve moved to the right, appreciating KOSPI. It was also told that the yen appreciated against the United States dollar. If I were in an economist, I could guess that the American stock prices might also increase as it happened with South Korean stocks. However, nothing is certain in the economics, so we will keep on observing what will happen.

Bibliography:

"Seoul Shares Open Higher on Yen's Rise-The Korea Herald." Seoul Shares Open Higher on Yen's Rise-The Korea Herald. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 June 2013. <http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20130604000260>.