USD/KRW: South Korean Won hits four-year low

Korea Won hits the lowest level since February 2016.
Bank of Korea said it will seek measures to stabilize markets.

Omkar Godbole FXStreet Contributor

Korean Won (KRW) is on the offer and extending Thursday's slide.

The currency fell to a four-year low of 1225.69 per US dollar a few minutes before press time and was last seen trading at 1,224 per US dollar, representing a 1.15% drop on the day. The local unit fell by over 1.65% on Thursday as financial markets melted on coronavirus fears. The S&P 500, a benchmark for global equities fell by 9.5 percent.

Intervention suspected

The USD/KRW pair saw a quick drop from 1,225 to 1,218 during the five minutes to 00:30 GMT. The move triggered speculation about central bank intervention. Some traders believe Bank of Korea bought won and sold dollars to halt the slide in the national currency.

The central bank hasn't confirmed intervention yet, but was out on the wires a few minutes ago, assuring intervention in money markets if needed. The bank said that it will seek policy measures to stabilize markets and closely monitor the spike in local bond yields.

The 10-year Korean bond yield gapped higher on Friday at 1.526% and was last seen at 1.60%, having closed Thursday at 1.386%.

Technical levels

USD/KRW

Overview
Today last price	1226.36
Today Daily Change	15.15
Today Daily Change %	1.25
Today daily open	1211.21

Trends
Daily SMA20	1197.95
Daily SMA50	1183.28
Daily SMA100	1176.75
Daily SMA200	1183.04

Levels
Previous Daily High	1213.95
Previous Daily Low	1191.33
Previous Weekly High	1207.18
Previous Weekly Low	1176.33
Previous Monthly High	1222.68
Previous Monthly Low	1176.26
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	1205.31
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	1199.97
Daily Pivot Point S1	1197.04
Daily Pivot Point S2	1182.88
Daily Pivot Point S3	1174.42
Daily Pivot Point R1	1219.66
Daily Pivot Point R2	1228.12
Daily Pivot Point R3	1242.28

Author

Omkar Godbole

FXStreet Contributor

Omkar Godbole, editor and analyst, joined FXStreet after four years as a research analyst at several Indian brokerage companies.

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