Seoul shares tumble on heavy Wall Street losses

SEOUL, Oct. 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korean stocks tumbled Friday on concerns that global moves to cut rates would not be enough to ward off a global economic recession, analysts said.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) plummeted 66.32 points,
or 5.12 percent, to 1,228.57 in the first 15 minutes of trading.
Steep losses caused the Korea Exchange, the bourse operator, to suspend trading
at 9:06 a.m for five minutes after the main index's futures prices fell more than
5 percent. Heavy selling prompted the key stock index to fall below the
1,250-point level.
Most shares got off to a weak start. Market leader Samsung Electronics declined
3.51 percent and top steelmaker POSCO fell 7.3 percent.
Financial shares took a beating amid the deepening global financial rout. Shares
of KB Financial Group, Kookmin Bank's holding company, tumbled 13.8 percent on
the first day of trading on the main bourse.
U.S. markets tumbled on Thursday on global economic recession fears. The Dow
Jones industrial average plunged 7.33 percent and the tech-dominated Nasdaq
composite index dipped 5.47 percent. It was the first time in about five years
that the Dow fell below 9,000.
The local currency was trading at 1,424.5 won to the U.S. dollar as of 9:15 a.m.,
down 45 won from Thursday's close. The won bounced back from a 10-year low
against the dollar on Thursday due to strong government intervention.