South Korean 5 Year Credit Default Swaps have seen a large drop this week with a 21.5% decline since Monday. Default risk for Asian debt seems to have dropped in general with Chinese and Japanese swaps going down in price as well. Here were the top 10 performing CDS (in terms of reduced default risk) for the week:
We started tracking default swaps back in October of last year and South Korean swaps shot up as much as 40% in the first 30 days. There was also rise in December after the passing of North Korean leader Kim Jung Il, but it was a more muted reaction than many expected. With this latest drop, the 5 Year CDS are now almost below where they were back in October.
This weekly move in swaps was essentially isolated; there wasn't an equivalent move in either South Korean equities or the Won. Both equities and the currency have performed well YTD in 2012 although for the last month they've both been flat.
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