코스피 7개월만에 2,000선 붕괴… 일본 증시 2% 넘게 급락

Major stock indexes in Asia closed lower on Friday amid ongoing trade disputes. South Korea's benchmark KOSPI fell below the 2,000 point mark while Japan's stock index dropped over 2 percent sharply after Japan officially took South Korea off from its whitelist.
Lee Min-sun reports. The benchmark KOSPI closed today below the 2-thousand-point mark for the first time in seven months.
After opening weaker on early Friday morning, it recovered above the 2,000 point mark during the mid-day trading.. but closed at 1998-point-13, losing zero-point-nine-five percent.
Foreign investors sold more than 390 billion won worth of shares, while local institutions and individuals bought up more than 375 billion won worth of shares themselves.
The ongoing trade conflicts and geopolitical issues also dragged down the secondary KOSDAQ index. It shed more than 1 percent to close at 615.70.
"The political issues continue to put pressure on the Korean equity market. If you look at the overall economic growth rate of Korea, it has slowed down quite significantly to below 2% point. This kind of political issue transferring into economic issues makes growth rate slowing down for more lasting into the second half of the year."
It wasn't just Korean stocks that suffered. Major indexes in Asia also dropped significantly. China's benchmark Shanghai Composite dropped 1-point-4 percent while Japan's Nikkei dipped 2-point-1 percent, losing more than 450 points.
"Main reason for that is because of the continuation of trade dispute that's happening amongst countries. Clearly, the concerns about the economic trade is there, and that it will result in to drop of GDP growth rate. If this kind of thing continues amongst all the countries including Korea, Japan, China and U.S. and even Europe, this will put some dent on to the sentiment of the overall economic growth rate as well as the market trade."
The Korean won plunged to a more than 2-year low against the U.S dollar on Friday...to close at 1-thousand-1-hundred-98 won to the dollar. The Japanese yen also weakened sharply to drop more than 2-point-6 percent against the Korean won.
Lee Min-sun Arirang News.