The Korean won falls as South Korea heads to the polls

pulse

May 9, 2017 1:34 PM

The Korean won closed down as Koreans headed to the polls to elect a new president.

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The Korean won fell as South Koreans headed to the polls.

The won closed down by 0.7% at 1139.24 on Tuesday.

Polls in South Korea closed at 7 a.m. ET, although the final results won't be known until later. Liberal Moon Jae-in is expected to beat his conservative opponent,

Tuesday's election result is "unlikely" to have a huge effect on the Korean economy, Gareth Leather and Krystal Tan, economists at Capital Economics, said.

"Moon's Democratic Party (DPK) not only lacks a majority in parliament but his policy proposals are nowhere near bold enough to address the challenges facing the economy," they argued in a note.

However, if Moon wins, that would bring an end to about a decade of conservative leadership in Korea, and could lead to shifts in South Korea's relationships with North Korea and China.

He'here is also the possibility that a Moon presidency could lead to improved relations between China, according to Bloomberg.

"A softer stance toward China is particularly important, in our view," Jan Dehn, Ashmore

As for the rest of the world, here's the scoreboard as of 7:51 a.m. ET:

The
US dollar index
is up by 0.4% at 99.49. "The dollar continues to recover against the Japanese yen," Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy, wrote.
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