Bourse Dropped 28 Percents Leveling Down to 830`s

Due to the slide of Won-Dollar exchange rate and the pouring out of the program selling, the stock price index plunged for a second day in row to the low of 830`s, the figure of which was the same level with that of five days ago.

The composite stock market index closed at 837.56 on May 21, a drop of 28.22 points (3.26 percent) compared to the previous day. The stock market started with a low index of 858.42, a drop of 7.36 points compared to the previous day, affected by the slide of 2.29 percent of the NASDAQ in the New York Stock Market, which closed in the early hours in Korean Time. Even though the Korea Index climbed later to 862.92, eventually the falling rate is further accelerated in the afternoon with the pouring out of the program selling.

The KOSDAQ index also fell 2.70 points (3.4 percent) to close at 76.65. The advancing stocks outnumbered the losing stocks by a ratio of 593 to 198 in the Korean Stock Index and by 641 to 130 in the KOSDAQ.

The reason the stock index fell so much is due to the pouring out of profit-taking volumes of worth of 132.8 billion Won as the July future index of the KOSPI 200 cut its value by 3.4 points (3.14 percent). In addition to that, a net selling of 46.8 billion Won by foreigners contributed to the rapid falling.

Stock values of export oriented big players like Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motors Inc, and Samsung SDI plunged 3.78 percent, 8.10 percent, and 7.88 percent, respectively, due to the lowered Won-Dollar foreign exchange rate (appreciation of Won value). The stock values of KT and Citizen`s Bank dropped 3.96 percent and 1.29 percent respectively by profit taking.

Chan-Sun Hong hcs@donga.com