South Korean shares slightly down after Fed's expected rate hike
KOSPI falls, foreigners net sellers
Korean won jumps against dollar
South Korea benchmark bond yield flat
SEOUL, March 23 (Reuters) -Round-up of South Korean financial markets:
** South Korean shares fell on Thursday, tracking weakness in Wall Street, but losses were capped as investors found the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy meeting outcome to be in line with their expectations.
** The benchmark KOSPI .KS11 was down 4.22 points, or 0.17%, to 2,412.74 as of 0113 GMT, after opening the session 0.8% lower.
** The Korean won jumped more than 1% against the dollar to hit the strongest level in more than a month, while the benchmark bond yield was flat.
** The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, but indicated it was on the verge of pausing further increases after the recent collapse of two U.S. banks.
** U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that she had not considered or discussed "blanket insurance" to U.S. banking deposits.
** "If the Fed had held the rates steady, that would have signalled bad health of the banking sector and rather had more negative impact on investor sentiment," said Mirae Asset Securities' analyst Park Kwang-nam.
** Park added the market was falling on Wall Street's overnight weakness, but the Fed meeting outcome was still positive for the stock market in the longer term.
** South Korea's finance minister said on Thursday authorities would keep closely monitoring the markets situation and take stabilisation measures if needed.
** Heavyweight chipmakers Samsung Electronics 005930.KS and SK Hynix 000660.KS recovered early losses to turn higher, while battery maker LG Energy Solution 373220.KS was only marginally down by 0.17%.
** Of the total 927 issues traded, 198 shares rose.
** Foreigners were net sellers of shares worth 5.9 billion won ($4.6 million).
** The won strengthened as much as 1.24% to 1,291.7 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform KRW=KFTC, hitting the highest level since Feb. 17.
** The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield fell by 2.3 basis points to 3.267%, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 0.4 basis point to 3.299%.
($1 = 1,292.1300 won)
Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Varun H K
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