South Korea stocks tumble over 2% on tech selloff, rising bond yields

SEOUL: Round-up of South Korean financial markets:

** South Korean shares fell for a fourth straight session on Tuesday, dragged down by losses in technology stocks following an overnight sell-off in their Wall Street peers and as global recovery hopes drove bond yields higher.

** The benchmark KOSPI dropped 60.47 points, or 2.02%, to 2,935.64 by 0150 GMT, after falling 1% in the previous session.

** The index has risen 2.16% so far this year, but lost 3.8% in the previous 30 trading sessions.

** Technology giant Samsung Electronics fell 1.46% and peer SK Hynix dropped 3.32%, while both battery maker LG Chem and internet giant Naver dropped over 4%.

** That tracked a sell-off in the tech-heavy Nasdaq overnight, with over 10% fall from its record close in February, in a sign that the index is in a correction.

** Foreigners were net sellers of 522.6 billion won ($457.48 million) worth of shares on the main board.

** The won was quoted at 1,142.5 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.81% lower than its previous close at 1,133.2.

** In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,143.1 per dollar, down 0.2% from the previous day, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,142.9.

** In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.16 points to 111.03.

** The most liquid 3-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by 6.2 basis points to 1.198%, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 3.2 basis points to 2.056%.