South Korea's FX transactions hit 7-year high on direct trading with yuan

Foreign currency transactions in South Korea reached the highest in about seven years in the second quarter after the market opened here to directly trade currencies of South Korea and China late last year, central bank data showed Thursday.

Daily FX trading volume stood at 49.72 billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter, up 3.6 percent from the previous quarter, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). It marked the largest since the third quarter of 2008.

Transactions between the South Korean won and the Chinese yuan surged to 3.24 billion dollars during the April-June period from 1. 39 billion dollars during the previous three-month period.

Demand for transactions of the two currencies got increasingly stronger after the direct won-yuan trading market opened in December 2014.

Transactions between the South Korean currency and all other peers on the spot market gained 9.8 percent from the previous quarter to 21.8 billion dollars in the second quarter. The trading between the won and the U.S. dollar inched up 1.1 percent during the quarter.

Trading of FX derivatives fell 0.7 percent from three months earlier to 27.92 billion dollars in the second quarter. FX swap transactions rose 1.5 percent, but non-delivery forwards (NDF) trading reduced 5.4 percent in the quarter.

FX transactions between local banks increased 8.8 percent, but those among Seoul branches of foreign banks slid 0.9 percent.