Seoul shares tumble nearly 4.6 pct on economic, credit woes

SEOUL, Oct. 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korean stocks nosedived almost 4.6 percent late Friday morning as investor sentiment was severely dented by growing prospects over a global recession and credit crunch woes, analysts said.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) plummeted 47.82 points,
or 4.56 percent, to 1,001.89 as of 11:20 a.m.
"It's like the country's stock and foreign exchange markets have almost broken
down. Strains on the Korean currency and dollar liquidity and global recession
woes gripped investors," said Rhoo Yong-seok, an analyst at Hyundai Securities
Co. "Samsung Electronics' weaker third-quarter earnings also added to the
nosedive of the key index."
The country's central bank said earlier in the day that the South Korean economy
grew 0.6 percent in the third quarter from three months earlier, marking the
slowest growth in four years, due to sluggish domestic demand and lagging export
growth.
The key stock index tumbled below the psychologically important 1,000-point mark
at one point. It was the first time the KOSPI fell below that level since June
29, 2005.
Steep losses forced the Korea Exchange (KRX), the bourse operator, to suspend
program trading for five minutes in early trading after the main index's futures
prices fell more than 5 percent. It was the 11th such emergency break this year.
The KOSPI has fallen more than 45 percent so far this year after reaching an
all-time high of 2,064.85 in late October of last year.
U.S. stocks ended mixed Thursday in volatile trading. The Dow Jones industrial
average jumped 2.02 percent and the tech-dominated Nasdaq composite index
declined 0.73 percent.
The local currency was trading at 1,435.5 won to the U.S. dollar as of 11:20
a.m., down 26.7 won from Thursday's close, as the continued sell-off of local
shares by foreign investors worsened already fragile investor sentiment, dealers
said.