Seoul shares tumble on escalating fears

SEOUL, Oct. 8 (Yonhap) -- South Korean stocks opened sharply lower Wednesday as
mounting distrust in the future of global financial markets continued to plague
blue chips here, analysts said.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) tumbled 40.89 points, or
2.99 percent, to 1,325.21 in the first 15 minutes of trading.
Large caps lost ground across the board, with heavy machinery and steel stocks
losing the most. Doosan Heavy Industries fell more than 5 percent and POSCO was
down 4 percent.
Tech exporters and financials also lost ground. Samsung Electronics lost 1.51
percent and its smaller chip rival Hynix Semiconductor tumbled more than 3.6
percent. Shinhan Financial Group, the No. 2 financial services company, plummeted
6.7 percent.
U.S. stocks took hefty blows again Tuesday amid escalating worries about credit
markets and the financial sector. The Dow Jones industrial average plummeted 5.11
percent and the tech-dominated Nasdaq composite index plunged 5.8 percent.
The local currency was trading at 1,337.7 won to the U.S. dollar as of 9:15 a.m.,
tumbling 9.6 won from Tuesday's close.