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Kospi nose-dives 3.39% on rekindled tariff war fears

Published: 28 Feb. 2025, 18:04

CHO YONG-JUN
[email protected]

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi closing at 2,532.78 points on Feb. 28, down 88.97 points, or 3.39 percent, from the previous trading session. [NEWS1]

Shares tumbled over 3 percent Friday, dragged down by the threat of a tariff war by U.S. President Donald Trump and a slump for Nvidia.

The benchmark Kospi lost 88.97 points, or 3.39 percent, to close at 2,532.78, following a 0.73 percent drop the previous day.

It is the lowest closing since Feb. 10, when the Kospi finished at 2,521.27.

Trade volume was heavy at 573.3 million shares worth 15 trillion won ($10.3 billion), with decliners far outnumbering gainers 832 to 94.

Foreign and institutional selling drove the plunge, dumping a net 1.5 trillion won and 615.9 billion won, respectively. Individuals, however, scooped up a net 2 trillion won.

Overnight in the United States, Trump announced plans to impose tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada, rekindling fears of a global tariff war.

On Wall Street, shares of Nvidia tumbled 8.5 percent as its better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings failed to revive investor sentiment toward AI, which has been cooled by China's DeepSeek.

In Seoul, semiconductor and IT shares were among the biggest losers.

Samsung Electronics sank 3.2 percent to 54,500 won and SK hynix slumped 4.52 percent to 190,200 won.

Naver tumbled 5.48 percent to 207,000 won and Kakao declined 2.92 percent to 43,150 won.

LG Energy Solution lost 4.99 percent to 352,000 won and Samyang Food slid 2.71 percent to 860,000 won.

Samsung Biologics skidded 3.71 percent to 1.11 million won and CJ ENM fell 2.1 percent to 60,700 won.

The local currency was quoted at 1,463.4 won against the greenback at 3:30 p.m., up 20.4 won from the previous session.

It marked the highest won-dollar rate quoted at 3:30 p.m. since Feb. 7, when it hit 1,467.2 won against the dollar.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, ended higher. Three-year government bond yields fell 2.5 basis points to 2.567 percent, while the return on the benchmark 10-year U.S. government bonds fell 0.2 basis points to 4.257 percent.

BY CHO YONG-JUN, YONHAP [[email protected]]