Won Drop Sends Mart to 2001 Low

Equity prices in Seoul continued their losing streak for a fifth day Monday, with the benchmark index falling to its lowest level this year, hit by a weakening Korean won and losses in key semiconductor makers.

The Korea Composite Stock Price shed 8.02 points, or 1.53 percent, to 515.20. As many investors were sitting on the sidelines, trading also slackened to the lowest level this year, as 230 million shares valued at 1.06 trillion won ($786 million) changed hands. Declining issues overwhelmed advancers 512 to 262, with 61 other stocks unchanged. Twenty-one shares tumbled by the daily limit of 15 percent, while 19 issues jumped by that limit.

"Sentiment was rapidly dampened by the downward spiral in the value of the won against the U.S. dollar in the wake of a sliding yen," said an analyst at Daishin Securities Co. On Monday, the won weakened to a 29-month low of 1,348.80 won against the greenback.

Large chipmakers closed lower to lead the day's decline, after the U.S. Philadelphia Stock Exchange Seminconductor Index, a gauge for the performance of global chipmakers, plunged 8.22 percent over the weekend amid growing concern about falling demand for personal computers. Samsung Electronics Co. lost 4.09 percent to 199,500 won, and Hyundai Electronics slid 2.06 percent to 3,090 won.

"Worries about oversupply in the global chip market and slowing sales of personal computers are expected to continue," said an SK Securities Co. analyst, Jeon Woo-jong. Other blue chips also fell, pulling down the index. SK Telecom Co. was off 2.73 percent at 178,000 won, the lowest since November 1999, as its plan to sell stakes to Japan's NTT DoCoMo failed to meet the March deadline.

The Kosdaq composite index slipped 0.14 point, or 0.20 percent, to 68.29, on local institutional and retail selling. Limiting losses, the so-called "big three" Internet stocks rallied. Daum Communications Inc. shot up 8.87 percent, while Serome Technology gained 4.67 percent, and Haansoft Inc. 3.79 percent.

by Kim Hyun-chul