By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
A new era has dawned with the advent of U.S. President Barack Obama, but the sunlight is not sufficient to brighten the dark stock markets in the United States and Korea.
Tracking an overnight plunge on Wall Street after Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the world's largest economy, the Seoul bourse also dipped Wednesday.
The benchmark KOSPI fell 23.2 points, or 2.06 percent, to close at 1,103.61. The tech-filled Kosdaq also tumbled 5.76 points, or 1.61 percent, to 352.43. The won-dollar exchange rate edged down 0.11 percent to 1,373 won per dollar.
``Everybody understands the economy is bad but what disappoints investors is that financial companies' performances are by far worse than expected,'' SK Securities analyst Kim Young-jun said.
``This generates fresh concern that wipe out the Obama effect. The Obama presidency does not seem to boost investor sentiment for now,'' he said.
The Royal Bank of Scotland caught the world by surprise earlier this week through its forecast it would chalk up a loss amounting to 28 billion pounds for 2008.
The forecasts on the massive loss crashed the U.S. market ― the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 4 percent, the worst inauguration day drop, and the S&P 500 dived 5.3 percent.
The KOSPI also got off to a rocky start and fell below the 1,100 level at one point. However, the index bounced back somewhat in the afternoon session to regain the 1,100 level.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics shed 3.34 percent to end at 448,500 won and foremost builder Daewoo Engineering & Construction lost 4.14 percent to 9,270 won.
A total of 329.5 million shares changed hands worth 4.09 trillion won while losers overwhelmed gainers 643 to 186 with 11 shares, reaching a daily limit down of 15 percent.