South Korean shares inched higher on Thursday, as cautious investors cheered fresh signs that the United States and China were still on track for a preliminary trade deal. The Korean won and the benchmark bond yield strengthened.

** The United States and China are moving closer to agreeing on the amount of tariffs to be rolled back in a "phase-one" trade deal, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing sources.

** U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that trade talks with China were going "very well," sounding more positive than on Tuesday when he said a trade deal might have to wait until after the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

** As of 0208 GMT, the Seoul stock market's main KOSPI was up 1.70 points, or 0.08%, at 2,070.59.

** Though it was positive news, the index is not rising much as investors were unsure about further progress in the trade talks, said Noh Dong-kil, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities.

** Foreigners were net buyers of 49.3 billion won ($41.80 million) worth of shares on the main board.

** The won was quoted at 1,188.5 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform , 0.49% higher than its previous close at 1,194.3.

** In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,188.9 per U.S. dollar, up 0.2% from the previous session, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,187.0 per dollar.

** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> was up 0.55%, after U.S. stocks ended higher [MKTS/GLOB]. Japanese stocks <.N225> rose 0.64%.

** The KOSPI advanced 1.41% so far this year, but lost 0.6% in the previous 30 trading sessions.

** The trading volume during the session in the KOSPI index was 153.43 million shares and, of the total traded issues of 902, the number of advancing shares was 337.

** The won lost 6.1% against the dollar so far this year.

** In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds was down 0.04 points at 110.38, while the 3-month Certificate of Deposit rate was quoted at 1.53%.

** The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by 1.4 basis points to 1.421%, while the benchmark 10-year yield climbed 2.6 basis points to 1.686%.

(Reporting by Hayoung Choi, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)