South Korean shares ended lower on Thursday as investors appeared to shrug off positive signals about the U.S.-China trade talks, with foreigners posting net selling for a 21th session. The Korean won rose, while the benchmark bond yield dropped.

** 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.

** It seems like investors were worried about domestic economy, given shares with a exposure to trade issue climbed, such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, said Huh Jae-hwan, an analyst at Eugene Investment & Securities.

** The Seoul stock market's main KOSPI ended down 8.15 points, or 0.39%, at 2,060.74, marking its third straight session of declines.

** Foreigners were net sellers of 64.9 billion won ($55.03 million) worth of shares on the main board. They were net sellers for a 21th consecutive session.

** The won was quoted at 1,190.2 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform , 0.34% higher than its previous close at 1,194.3.

** In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,190.3 per U.S. dollar, up 0.1% from the previous day, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,189.2 per dollar.

** MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> was up 0.51%, after U.S. stocks closed higher overnight [MKTS/GLOB]. Japanese stocks <.N225> rose 0.71%.

** The KOSPI advanced 0.97% 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 462.56 million shares and, of the total traded issues of 908, the number of advancing shares was 273.

** The won lost 6.3% against the dollar so far this year.

** In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.05 points to 110.37, while the 3-month Certificate of Deposit rate was quoted at 1.53% in late afternoon trade.

** The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by 1.0 basis points to 1.417% in late afternoon trade, while the benchmark 10-year yield fell by 0.6 basis points to 1.654%.

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