The South Korean won gave up its limited early gains against the dollar by midday on Friday, with traders remaining cautious over the uncertainty surrounding a proposed $700 billion lifeline for the U.S. financial sector.

The country’s finance minister on Friday issued a renewed pledge to help ease dollar funding shortages and another ministry official said the authorities would inject at least $10 billion into the swap market over the coming weeks.

The costs of dollar funding in the local swap market continued to fall after the remarks, but lingering doubts about an early implementation of the proposed $700 billion U.S. financial bailout plan kept undermining the won.

The won was quoted at 1,158.2/9.0 per dollar at 0300 GMT, unchanged from Thursday’s domestic close of 1,158.2, after rising to as high as 1,148.8.

“The market’s players as a whole remain worried about where the global markets are headed, and the won is not expected to make a major turnaround soon,” said a foreign bank dealer.

The Seoul stock market’s benchmark KOSPI dipped 1.6 percent due to persistent concerns about the U.S. and global financial markets, with foreign investors net sellers of more than 100 billion won worth of local shares.

0300 GMT 0030 GMT prev close

Won 1,158.2/9.0 1,153.7/4.8 1,158.2

Yen/won 10.9347/42 10.8677/83 10.9411/09

KOSPI 1,478.19 1,488.53 1,501.63

Source: http://www.afxnews.com

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