Stock index tumbles to 660 points

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index plunged as low as 657.02 points as of 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, 19.67 points down from the previous day.

The over-the-counter index dipped to 82.00 points, 2.50 points down from the previous day. The Kosdaq index marked 105.46 points, a fall of 1.95 point.

During the day¡¯s trading, share prices began to tumble following a flood of programmed sales and the large-scale sale of issues by institutional and foreign investors, also influenced by the slump in the Nasdaq indexes in the United States.

Semiconductor shares of Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Electronics Industries and shares of the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. and the Korea Tobacco-Ginseng Corp. nose-dived during the session, along with other index-related information-telecommunications shares such as SK Telecom, Dacom and the Korea Telecom.

Programmed sales recorded turnover of 27.2 billion won, including 20.6 billion won of marginal profits. But the programmed purchases ended up at 1 billion won, precipitating the fall of stock prices.

While foreign and institutional investors were in the melee of sales, registering 2.6 billion and 16 billion won in turnover respectively, individual and other corporate bodies purchased 14.1 billion won and 4.5 billion won worth of stock, but this stopped far short of curbing the declining market.

Meanwhile, in the Kosdaq market, individuals sold off 14.8 billion won worth of stock, while institutional investors and corporations purchased 700 million won and 7.1 billion won worth.

The market slid in general, partly in response to declines of the Nasdaq and the Korea Stock Exchange. Overall, all listed companies were showing a downward trend.