(LEAD) Seoul shares open sharply lower on U.S. tech sell-off

Seoul shares opened sharply lower on Wednesday, mirroring losses on Wall Street. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) dropped 453.77 points, or 6.61 percent, to 6,416.06 by 09:15 a.m. Program trading for KOSPI-listed shares was temporarily halted for five minutes as the Korea Exchange (KRX) activated a sell-side sidecar due to the KOSPI 200 Futures Index falling 5 percent or more.

Earlier, Wall Street's major indexes had closed lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 0.22 percent and the S&P 500 dropping 0.69 percent. Tech stocks suffered particularly, with Samsung Electronics down 7.64 percent, SK hynix 9.63 percent, SK Innovation 4.33 percent, and Hyundai Motor 6.09 percent. Despite this, Hanwha Aerospace saw a slight gain of 3.66 percent after reports of a potential U.S. Army contract.

The Korean won weakened slightly against the U.S. dollar, closing at 1,413.6 won per dollar, an increase of 0.04 won from the previous session.