Seoul stocks open on sharp decline Tuesday

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi falling more than 2 percent on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

Seoul stocks opened on a sharp decline Tuesday with the Kospi falling more than 2 percent to dip to a low of 2,174.06 as of 10 a.m.

Most shares opened lower Tuesday morning with tech and auto showing declines across the board.

Samsung Electronics fell 3.56 percent to 54,200 won and SK hynix fell 1.32 percent to 90,000 won as of 10 a.m. Hyundai Motor shed 3.99 percent to 168,500 won and Kia dropped 5.35 percent to 67,300 won.

Stocks were affected by indexes falling on the New York Stock Exchange the previous day, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 0.32 percent, the S&P 500 falling 0.75 percent and Nasdaq falling 1.04 percent, as well as a Samsung Electronics report that it expects a sharp decline in operating profit for the third quarter last Friday, due to weak business in chips.

Other big cap shares fell significantly, with Kakao shedding 2.06 percent to 49,850 won, LG Chem falling 1.19 percent to 582,000 won and Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering losing 3.50 percent to 77,300 won.

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