
Seoul shares opened lower on Wednesday, with the KOSPI falling 1.11% to 6,864.25, driven by losses in technology stocks despite easing global oil prices and declining bond yields from multidecade highs, while U.S. markets saw gains overnight with the Dow up 0.49% and Nasdaq reaching a record high.
AI-generated summary
Global oil prices had been at multidecade highs, contributing to market volatility, while bond yields had also risen significantly, influencing investor sentiment across major markets.
SEOUL, Oct. 7 (Yonhap) -- Seoul shares opened lower Wednesday, led by losses in technology stocks, bucking easing concerns over oil prices lower and bond yields.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 77.14 points, or 1.11 percent, to 6,864.25 at the opening bell.
Global oil prices fell and bond yields declined from their multidecade highs.
Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.49 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.45 percent to reach a record high.

Samsung Electronics is projected to report a nearly nine-fold increase in third-quarter operating profit to 106.1 trillion won ($79.1 billion), driven by strong AI demand for memory chips, despite moderating price gains, a stronger South Korean won, and analyst forecast cuts of nearly 8% since August.

On the 7th, KOSPI exceeded the 6,900 level at one point during the day, but turned downward in the aftermath of the decline in US semiconductor stock prices and is now trading in the 6,800 range. Individuals are net buying, but foreigners and institutions are net selling.

LS Electric has signed an agreement with Nanya Plastics and KHI, affiliates of Formosa Plastics Group, to establish a joint venture named Namanakseong for power infrastructure projects in Taiwan. LS Electric holds a 50 percent stake, while Nanya Plastics and KHI hold 40 percent and 10 percent respectively. The venture will handle power project orders, engineering and technical support in Taiwan, combining LS Electric's manufacturing and design capabilities with Nanya Plastics' local manufacturing base and EPC network. The agreement builds on a prior memorandum of understanding from March last year on eco-friendly power equipment and energy efficiency solutions.

In the economic due diligence index announced by the Korea Institute of Certified Public Accountants, certified public accountants evaluated the current BSI for the third quarter of this year and the forecast BSI for the fourth quarter at 113, respectively, predicting that economic expansion will continue due to strong exports, production, and investment centered on semiconductors. However, concerns were also raised about increased financial costs due to exchange rate volatility and global monetary policy uncertainty.

Minister of SMEs and Startups Lee So-young promised to expand support for employment insurance premiums for the self-employed, strengthen the social safety net for small business owners by establishing industrial accident insurance premiums and health care support, support overseas expansion of small business products such as beauty and fashion, establish the Startup Venture Regulation and Innovation Committee, revitalize fund-based venture investment, guarantee participation of small and medium-sized businesses in national strategic industries, intensive support for innovative companies in new growth areas, and strengthen administrative sanctions on technology theft for process and coexistence.

The Financial Security Institute announced that it has prepared the 'Financial AI Agent Security Evaluation Standard', which consists of 17 items in 5 areas, including data contamination, model contamination, extraction attack, evasion attack, and AI agent security, in order to check security threats due to the expansion of AI agents in the financial sector. Among these, there are 10 new threat response items resulting from the introduction of AI agents, the details of which will be disclosed in this year's AI Red Team Report.