Seoul Shares Slide on US Losses

South Korean stocks started substantially lower Tuesday as foreign investors rushed to sell shares following U.S. stock losses in the previous session, analysts said.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 14.52 points, or 0.89 percent, to 1,610.65 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Blue chips lost ground across the board, with steel and shipbuilding issues also rattled. Top steelmaker POSCO tumbled 4.87 percent and world's No. 1 shipyard Hyundai Heavy Industries was down 3.82 percent.

Machinery and finance shares were also down. Doosan Heavy Industries, leading power generator maker, and top lender Kookmin Bank were both down. Samsung Electronics slid 0.72 percent along

with other tech exporters.

U.S. stocks fell for a third consecutive session on Monday on selling spree of finance shares on concerns that the world's largest economy may already be in recession. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.29 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index tumbled 1.95 percent.

The local currency was trading at 973.85 won to the U.S. dollar as of 9:15 a.m., down 8.55 won from Monday's close. (Yonhap)