Seoul shares open sharply lower on US losses, inflation concerns

Seoul, Oct 13

Seoul shares opened sharply lower on Tuesday, as losses in US technology stocks weighed on investor sentiment ahead of major companies' earnings reports and the release of U.S. inflation data.

Bourse operator activated a sell-side sidecar for the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) as the stock index dropped.

After opening 3.1 percent lower, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index extended losses, trading down 257.59 points, or 4.03 percent, to 6,126.65 as of 9:15 am, reports Yonhap news agency.

Overnight, U.S. stocks ended mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 0.38 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite falling 0.44 percent.

Investors are awaiting the U.S. consumer price index report due Wednesday (U.S. time), which could offer further clues about the Federal Reserve's policy outlook ahead of its October rate-setting meeting.

In Seoul, tech stocks led the decline. Market behemoth Samsung Electronics fell 4.79 percent, and its chipmaking rival SK hynix declined 5.61 percent.

Defence giant Hanwha Aerospace dropped 3.71 percent, and top carmaker Hyundai Motor shed 5 percent.

Among gainers, Hybe, the agency behind K-pop boy band BTS, rose 1.47 percent and rival entertainment agency SM climbed 1.8 percent.

The Korean won was trading at 1,335.70 won against the U.S. dollar, up 0.1 won from the close of the previous stock trading session.

Meanwhile, sales of bonds and certificates of deposits (CDs) in South Korea rose more than 11 percent in the third quarter of this year from a year earlier, data showed on Tuesday.

The value of debt instruments issued during the third quarter came to 178.3 trillion won (US$134 billion), up 11.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Securities Depository.

Bond sales jumped 13.8 percent on-year to 166.4 trillion won, while CD issuance sank 16.8 percent to 11.9 trillion won.

Compared with a quarter ago, however, sales of bonds and CDs fell 1.9 percent.

The Bank of Korea lifted its key rate to 3 percent over two straight meetings in July and August, marking the first back-to-back rate hikes since January 2023.