KOSPI falls 2.62% as Seoul shares extend losses to a third day

South Korea’s KOSPI fell 2.62% to close at 6,625.93 in Seoul on Thursday, Oct. 8, extending its losses to a third consecutive session as investors faced renewed concerns about oil prices and inflation. The benchmark lost 177.97 points, according to Yonhap News Agency’s closing report.

The index had opened 0.07% higher before turning lower. That reversal matters because an early snapshot did not capture the scale of the day’s decline: the final loss was substantially larger than the fall reported near the start of trading. Yonhap described elevated oil prices and the prospect of higher interest rates as sources of investor wariness, rather than measuring how much either factor contributed to the sell-off.

Which Seoul stocks fell on Oct. 8?

Two of South Korea’s largest chipmakers declined. Samsung Electronics closed down 2.42% at 262,000 won, while SK hynix lost 2.44% to finish at 1.68 million won, Yonhap reported. Their declines accompanied a broader drop in the benchmark; the figures alone do not establish which stocks accounted for the largest share of its point loss.

The losses reached beyond chipmakers. Defense company Hanwha Aerospace fell 8.33% to 891,000 won, and shipping company HMM declined 2.8% to 20,800 won. There were gainers, however: battery makers Samsung SDI and LG Energy Solution rose 1.25% and 2.56%, respectively, closing at 569,000 won and 401,000 won. The mix of moves shows that Thursday’s pressure did not affect every major Seoul-listed company in the same way.

Oil prices and borrowing costs across Asia

The concerns facing Seoul were visible elsewhere in the region. In an independently reported Thursday market snapshot, the Associated Press put Japan’s Nikkei down 0.9%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 0.2% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 down 0.6%. Its early reading also showed the KOSPI lower, before Yonhap’s later report established the Seoul closing figure.

AP reported Brent crude at $102.43 a barrel early Thursday, up 2.2%, and U.S. crude at $89.96, up 1.9%, amid uncertainty about supply. It put the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield around 5.31%, after a rise to 5.36% on Wednesday that AP described as its highest level since 2002. Higher yields can raise borrowing costs, a pressure AP identified in its account of equity trading.

The regional pressure had also appeared the previous day. Reuters reported that an index of emerging Asian equities fell 0.9% on Wednesday, its sharpest one-day drop since Sept. 28. Its report, republished by Business Recorder, linked investor caution to surging crude prices and U.S. yields near multi-year highs. That Wednesday index reading is context for Thursday’s Seoul close, not another measurement of the Oct. 8 KOSPI loss.

Reuters said Brent had climbed back above $100 a barrel amid supply worries it linked to a storm approaching North American oil-producing regions and Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia. It also reported concern about inflation and European debt as U.S. Treasury yields remained elevated. These accounts identify pressures cited in market coverage; they do not isolate a single cause of South Korea’s three-session decline.

What happened to the won?

The Korean won strengthened against the U.S. dollar despite the stock-market fall. Yonhap quoted it at 1,338.5 won per dollar at 3:30 p.m., compared with 1,340.4 at the previous trading session’s close. A lower number of won per dollar indicates a stronger won, so the currency move should not be described as a parallel decline with shares.

Interest-rate expectations remain part of the market backdrop. Yonhap said the U.S. Federal Reserve had signaled that it might need to raise rates this year to contain inflation. AP reported that the Fed had already raised rates by a quarter point in September, to a range of 3.75% to 4.00%, and that most officials expected another increase this year. The cited reports do not establish the result of any future decision or the direction of Seoul shares in the next session.