South Korean shares fell to their lowest level on Monday in more than 17 months, which temporarily put a pause on trading amid tariff concerns.
Asian markets were seen plunging further on Monday as world leaders grappled with Trump’s new tariffs.
Trump’s tariff tantrum has shaken the entire global stock market. After China triggered the trade war by announcing a 34% retaliatory tariff over the weekend, on Monday morning stock markets across Asia have nosedived, with many hitting lower circuits.
While Japan’s Nikkei tumbled early 9%, the country’s bank stock indices fell as much as 17%. The index was trading down 7.3% at 31,318.79. All the 225 component stocks of the index were trading in red.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 8% while South Korean shares fell to their lowest level on Monday in more than 17 months, which temporarily put a pause on trading amid tariff concerns.
A trading halt was triggered on the KOSPI right after the market opened, stopping program trading for five minutes. This was the first time this happened since August 5, 2024.
South Korea‘s finance minister said on Monday that the country will prepare support measures for sectors that need urgent help, ahead of the 25% tariff that President Trump plans to impose on imports from South Korea starting Wednesday.
As per Reuters, investors on Monday sold off the dollar and moved their money into safer currencies like the yen and Swiss franc. Last week, Australian and New Zealand dollars, were also hit hard in the market crash, which caused nearly $6 trillion in losses last week. This was due to growing concerns about a global recession, especially in the United States.
The Australian dollar dropped 0.73% to $0.6001, after falling to a five-year low earlier, while the New Zealand dollar fell 0.75% to $0.5554.
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