KOSPI closes below 2,000 for the first time in 22 months

코스피 22개월만에 2,000선마저 붕괴…코스닥 5%대 급락The nation's stocks slide Monday...with the benchmark index closing at the lowest level this year.This comes despite the government's announncement of injecting funds to help stabilize the market. Kim Hyesung breaks down the numbers for us. For the first time in 22 months, South Korea's main index has closed below the 2-thousand mark.On Monday, the benchmark KOSPI closed at 19-96,... down 1-point-five percent and marking a fifth straight session of declines. The tech-heavy KOSDAQ plunged by over five percent, closing below 630, the lowest figure since August 2017. For the eighth straight session, foreigners were net sellers, letting go of 140 million dollars' worth of Korean stocks.Local institutions purchased shares worth nearly 558 million dollars, but selling by individuals totaled almost 427 million.The sell-off came despite the government's announcement that it will help stabilize the market. At a meeting with the Financial Supervisory Service and the Korea Exchange on Monday morning,... Financial Services Commission Vice Chairman Kim Yong-beom said the government will set up a four-hundred-38 million U.S. dollar fund to invest into undervalued local stocks... and inject it as soon as November."Sluggish quarterly earnings from U.S. and Chinese companies weighed on market sentiment heavily. The fear is growing that escalating U.S.-China trade tensions will affect the global economy and Korea's export-driven economy,... not to mention other headwinds like the Fed's rate hike and a slowing local economy. There is no good news to lift up investor sentiment."On Friday, the Dow shed one-point-two percent, while the NASDAQ fell two percent on disappointing earnings from companies like Amazon and Google's parent Alphabet. The S&P 500 also dropped 1-point-seven percent. China stocks closed two percent lower Monday... led by losses in the life insurance and financial sectors.Kim Hyesung, Arirang News.