Asian shares suffered their steepest daily drop in 10 months on Monday (August 5), as Sino-U.S. trade friction sent the yuan slumping to a more than decade trough and stampeded investors into safe harbors.
South Korean shares tumbled more than 2% to close at their lowest level since June 2016. The drop comes amid escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and China, South Korea’s largest export markets, and also a worsening diplomatic row with Japan.
Japan said on Friday it would remove South Korea from a list of countries that enjoy minimum export restrictions from Aug. 28, pushing the KOSPI down nearly 1%.
The Seoul stock market’s main KOSPI index closed down on Monday 51.15 points or 2.56% at 1,946.98, marking its sharpest daily percentage loss since May 9. Tech giant Samsung Electronics fell 2.2%, extending losses from last week when it reported a plunge in profit and warned Japanese curbs on the export of chip-making materials was blurring its outlook.
