Anchor: The South Korean stock markets experienced a Black Monday for the first time in eight months, with the main bourse KOSPI and the tech-heavy KOSDAQ each losing over five percent amid rising concerns over the new U.S. tariffs. Authorities activated a sidecar order for five minutes to pause the selling of shares.
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: The benchmark KOSPI shed 137 points, or over five-point-five percent, Monday to end the day’s trading at two-thousand-328-point-two.

The loss from the previous trading day is the greatest since August 5 last year, when the KOSPI fell 234 points.

The main bourse dropped below the two-thousand-400 mark from the opening, and the KOSPI 200 Futures Index slid 17-point-one points, or five-point-19 percent, to 312-point-05.

Authorities issued a sidecar order at 9:12 a.m., halting the selling of shares for five minutes.

SK hynix shares plunged nearly ten percent, while those of Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor lost as much as the overall index.

The tech-heavy KOSDAQ shed five-point-25 percent to close at 651-point-three.

Markets elsewhere in Asia also plummeted Monday in the aftermath of the reciprocal tariffs the U.S. announced last week.

Japan’s Nikkei lost more than seven percent, while Taiwan’s TAIEX  declined over nine percent and China’s Shenzhen Stock Exchange fell more than ten percent.

As risk aversion sentiment intensified amid the tariff concerns, the South Korean won weakened 33-point-seven won against the U.S. dollar, with Monday’s Seoul closing spot rate at 3:30 p.m. standing at one-thousand-467-point-eight.

The won weakened by the biggest margin since March 19, 2020, near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.