Seoul shares extend losses on tech sell-off

Seoul: Seoul shares extended their losses late on Monday morning, led by declines in technology stocks, as elevated oil prices and escalating tensions in the Middle East fuelled inflation concerns.

After opening 0.72 percent lower, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 150.98 points, or 2.28 percent, to 6,474.95 as of 9:15 am, reports Yonhap news agency.

Foreigners sold a net 699.27 billion won (US$524 million) worth of stocks, while institutions and individuals bought a net 3.25 billion won and 441.74 billion won, respectively.

The decline came despite gains on Wall Street on Friday (U.S. time).

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.83 percent on Friday (local time), while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.64 percent.

Oil prices rose amid escalating tensions in the Middle East following renewed Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia's main airport over the weekend.

A broader regional conflict could further disrupt energy supplies, stoking inflation and increasing pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.

In Seoul, tech stocks led the decline.

Market behemoth Samsung Electronics fell 2 percent, and its chipmaking rival SK hynix declined 2.86 percent.

Defence giant Hanwha Aerospace dropped 2.58 percent, and leading shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy Industries plunged 3.91 percent.

Among gainers, No. 2 carmaker Kia rose 0.94 percent, and shipping firm HMM jumped 5.29 percent.

The Korean won was trading at 1,335.35 won against the U.S. dollar as of 11:20 a.m., up 6.65 won from the previous stock trading session's close.

Meanwhile, the daily amount of securities settlements in the South Korean financial market dropped in the third quarter from three months earlier, industry data showed on Monday.

An average 35.4 trillion won (US$26.5 billion) worth of securities was handled per day through the Korea Securities Depository (KSD) in the July-September period, down 16.5 percent from a quarter earlier, according to the data by the KSD.

On the stock exchange, the daily average fell 12.4 percent on-quarter to 8.8 trillion won, the data showed.

A daily 26.6 trillion won worth of debts was traded on the bond exchange over the cited period, down 17.7 percent on-quarter.

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