Stocks of Kakao's four listed companies plunge after market opens Monday

Fire fighters at SK C&C data center in Pangyo, Gyeonggi, on Saturday [NEWS1]

All four listed Kakao companies — Kakao, Kakao Games, Kakao Pay and Kakao Bank — plunged early Monday morning following the service outage over the weekend caused by a fire at a data center in the SK C&C building in Pangyo, Gyeonggi.

Kakao fell 9.05 percent right after the market opening, touching a new 52-week low of 46,800 won ($32.50).

Kakao has been slipping to new yearly lows amid rising interest rates, before briefly rebounding on Friday by 8.67 percent to 51,400 won as tech stocks rose on the Nasdaq in the previous trading day. But Friday's upturn was offset by the steep decline Monday.

Kakao's price slid 59 percent compared to the beginning of the year.

Kakao Games also declined 7.97 percent to 35,200 won right after the market opening and reached 34,750 won, nearing its record low of 34,400 won on Oct. 13.

Kakao Pay dropped 9.14 percent to 32,800 won, touching a record low of 32,450 won.

Kakao Bank fell 7.71 percent to 16,150 won, also a record low.

Meanwhile, SK Inc., which operates the SK C&C data center, fell 5.83 percent to 194,000 won as of 9:30 a.m. Monday.

Naver, Kakao’s rival, lost 2.72 percent to 161,000 won after the market opening but has since rebounded near its closing price on Friday.

Naver also reported partial disruptions in its services due to the fire.

As of 9:30 p.m. Sunday, most of Kakao's services had been restored, according to the company.

Analysts forecast the service outage would cost the company between 15 billion won and 22 billion won.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]