Stocks fall for fourth session on monetary tightening, recession concerns

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi closing at 2,462.50 points on Monday, down 30.19 points, or 1.21 percent, from the previous trading day. [YONHAP]

Stocks sank more than 1 percent Monday to extend their losing streak to a fourth session on concerns over the U.S. Federal Reserve's aggressive monetary tightening and a global recession. The local currency sharply fell against the dollar.

The Kospi lost 30.19 points, or 1.21 percent, to close at 2,462.50.

Trading volume was a bit slim at 412.69 million shares worth 6.01 trillion won ($4.48 billion), with decliners far outpacing gainers 771 to 127.

Institutions sold a net 237.8 billion won worth of shares, while individuals and foreign investors picked up shares worth 131.1 billion won and 117.1 billion won, respectively.

"Investors worried about the Fed's further monetary tightening, which led to a sharp fall of the won and, subsequently, the stock index," said Kwak Byeong-ryeol, an analyst at Leading Investment & Securities.

The minutes of the Fed's July meeting released last week showed that it would continue to push for aggressive monetary tightening to tame inflation.

"Volatility is expected to continue throughout this week," Kwak added.

Most big-cap shares lost ground Monday, with tech and bio shares leading the fall.

Samsung Electronics fell 1.48 percent to 60,000 won, and SK hynix lost 1.24 percent to 95,200 won.

LG Energy Solution went down 1.01 percent to 442,500 won, and LG Chem inched down 0.16 percent to 639,000 won.

Samsung Biologics tumbled 1.96 percent to 851,000 won, and Celltrion fell 0.74 percent to 200,000 won.

Major carmakers ended mixed. Hyundai Motor lost 0.53 percent to 189,000 won, and Kia inched up 0.26 percent to 77,400 won.

The local currency ended at 1,339.80 won against the dollar, up 13.90 won from the previous session's close. It marked the first time that the won has slid to the 1,330 level against the greenback since April 2009.

The Kosdaq fell 18.30 points, or 2.25 percent, to close at 795.87 points.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed lower. The yield on three-year government bonds climbed 5.3 basis points to 3.255 percent, and the yield on the 10-year government bond rose 9.0 basis points to 2.97 percent.

BY LIM JEONG-WON, YONHAP [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]