Seoul shares tank 9 pc on tech losses amid Middle East tensions

Seoul, July 13 (IANS) Seoul shares plunged 9 per cent on Monday as investors dumped technology stocks for profit-taking amid renewed tensions in the Middle East. The Korean won fell against the US dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 669.01 points, or 8.95 percent, to close at 6,806.93 after falling as low as 6,783.43, reports Yonhap news agency.

Trade volume was moderate at 469.86 million shares worth 39.8 trillion won (US$26.5 billion), with decliners far outnumbering gainers 713 to 179.

Institutions and foreigners sold a net 2.22 trillion won and 1.7 trillion won worth of shares, respectively, while individuals bought a net 3.9 trillion won.

After opening 0.85 percent lower, the KOSPI extended its losses, triggering a circuit breaker that temporarily halted trading of KOSPI-listed stocks for 20 minutes.

It marked the seventh activation of the measure this year.

On Friday, U.S. stocks advanced, buoyed by South Korean chipmaker SK hynix's multibillion-dollar U.S. share offering. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.29 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also rose 0.29 percent.

SK hynix's American depositary receipts (ADRs) on the Nasdaq closed at US$168 each, well above the offering price of $149.

Despite the successful U.S.

market debut, SK hynix shares tumbled as investors took profits and shifted to the company's ADRs, analysts said.

Investor sentiment was also dampened by heightened uncertainty in the Middle East after the United States and Iran exchanged fresh strikes over the status of the Strait of Hormuz.

"The country's newly introduced single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds linked to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix continued to fuel volatility in the stock market," Samsung Securities said in a research note.