South Korean stocks were pummeled once again by concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic’s ramifications on the economy at home and abroad. 

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index(KOSPI) fell 83-point-69 points, or five-point-34 percent, ending the day at one-thousand-482-point-46.

It once plunged over six-point-five percent in the morning session. A “sidecar” was activated to suspend trading on the KOSPI for five minutes immediately following the opening of the session after KOSPI 200 index futures remained more than five percent lower from the previous close for at least one minute. 

The index plunged for seven consecutive trading days through last Thursday before bouncing back on Friday after a 60-billion-dollar currency swap deal between Seoul and Washington aimed to relieve a liquidity crunch triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

However, the rebound was short-lived after U.S. stocks crashed last Friday amid slowing moves by the U.S. Congress to reach bipartisan deals on the Trump administration’s two-trillion-dollar stimulus package.

The tech-heavy KOSDAQ also crashed, losing 23-point-99 points, or five-point-13 percent, to close at 443-point-76.

On the foreign exchange, the local currency weakened 20 won against the dollar, ending the session at one-thousand-266-point-five won.