The Korea Times

Seoul shares open over 8% lower on inflation, tech slump woes; trading halted for 20 minutes

Korean stocks nosedived more than 8 percent shortly after opening Monday, triggering a 20-minute trading halt, as investors dumped tech and other market heavyweights amid woes over rising inflation, which could prod a rate hike. After falling nearly 9 percent, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) had plunged 683.13 points, or 8.37 percent, to 7,477.46 as of 9:30 a.m. With the sharp fall, the Korea Exchange activated a circuit breaker for the KOSPI about three minutes after opening, halting trading for 20 minutes, and a sell-side sidecar for the secondary KOSDAQ market about six minutes after opening, suspending trading for five minutes. The weak start came as major U.S. indexes suffered sharp losses last week, fueled by semiconductor shares' biggest daily percentage drop since March 2020 and the hotter-than-expected U.S. jobs report for May, which fueled fears of a hawkish policy pivot by the U.S. Federal Reserve. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1.35 percent lower on Friday (local time), while the S&P 500 dipped 2.64 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite