Seoul shares open sharply lower on Fed chief's hawkish comments

Seoul shares opened sharply lower Monday, tracking losses on Wall Street amid the possibility of an imminent rate hike by the US Federal Reserve caused by hawkish comments from its chief last week. After opening 2.58 percent down, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index trimmed earlier losses, trading 163.60 points, or 2.41 percent lower at 6,625.28, as of 9:15 a.m. On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.02 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite declined 0.52 percent.