Seoul shares open sharply lower on US tech sell-off

Seoul shares opened sharply lower Wednesday, following overnight losses on Wall Street, as rising bond yields and oil prices weighed on technology stocks and dampened investor sentiment. After opening 4.96 percent lower, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 453.77 points, or 6.61 percent, to 6,416.06 as of 09:15 a.m. Shortly after the opening bell, program trading for the KOSPI-listed shares was suspended for five minutes, as the Korea Exchange activated a sell-side sidecar. A se