Korean won strengthens against U.S. dollar; KOSPI falls on chip tariff fears

The local currency strengthened against the greenback on Friday, driven by the dollar's weakness and eased political uncertainties.

Moon Ji-young explains.

The Korean won strengthened on Friday, trading against the U.S. dollar at 1-thousand-4-hundred-34-point-1 won at 3:30 PM, down 32-point-9 won from the previous day.

The local currency saw a brief spike against the greenback, trading at one-thousand-4-hundred-30-point 2 per U.S. dollar at one point as the Constitutional Court was delivering its ruling to oust President Yoon Suk Yeol.

"This depreciation of the U.S. dollar can be primarily attributed to the concerns over an economic slowdown in the U.S. in addition to the strengthening of the Korean won, driven by eased political uncertainties"

Meanwhile, the benchmark KOSPI lost 21-point-28 points or point-86 percent to close at 2645.42.

As Trump announced that tariffs on chips will start "very soon" on April 3rd local time, semiconductors led the decline, with market bellwether Samsung Electronics falling 2-point-6 percent and its rival SK Hynix tumbling nearly 6-point-4 percent.

On the same day, the so-called F4 gathering of top financial officials, including Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, convened to assess market conditions following the Court's ruling.

The officials concluded that there were no significant changes after the ruling and reaffirmed their commitment to addressing the increasing pressures on domestic companies and the economy resulting from U.S. tariffs.

They highlighted the necessity of passing a supplementary budget of 10 trillion won, roughly 6.9 billion U.S. dollars, to the National Assembly.

Moon Ji-young, Arirang News.