Share Prices Plunge 31 Points, Collapse of 840 Base

The stock index of Korean bourse plunged as it met a whirlwind from New York. The composite stock index fell to 830 bases for the first time in 40 days, and the KOSDAQ index has bottomed to the lowest base of 73 in 80 days.

On April 29, the composite stock index closed at 838.51, a whopping drop of 31.14 point (3.58 percent) compared to the last weekend. This is the lowest base since March 11 (827.02). The market started at 848.52, a 21.13 points drop to the previous session, but surged up to 863.10 as low prices attracted bottom-fishing buyers, however the market continued to slide, as foreigners` selling spree did not abated.

The KOSDAQ composite index also closed at 73.70, a one-day drop of 3.08 point (4.01 percent), and recorded the lowest figure since February 8 (72.88).

Winners outpaced losers as 654 of the exchange and 616 of the KOSDAQ have felled and 132 of the exchange and 140 of the KOSDAQ have risen. The transaction amount stayed at 3,133 billion Won as buyers disappeared even though the daily moving range was 29.78 points.

The total transaction volume of KOSDAQ recorded 1,111 billion Won. A phenomenon of `market paralysis`, where stocks could not be sold even in bid, partially appeared in the bourse.

Customer deposit that can purchase stocks any time reduced 604 billion Won for two consecutive days, April 25 and 26, but increased about 66.4 billion Won to 1,235.9 billion Won in the day, maintaining 1,200 billion Won basis.

Chan-Sun Hong hcs@donga.com