South Korean stocks fell sharply on the 2nd after renewed military hostilities between the United States and Iran drove up oil prices and heightened inflation concerns. The KOSPI opened at 6,625.47, down 210.33 points, or 3.08%, before recovering slightly to 6,678.01, down 2.31%, as of 9:23 a.m. The KOSDAQ also briefly fell below 800 after opening down 2.25%. The selloff followed declines on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.79%, the S&P 500 fell 0.71% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.03% on the 1st local time. U.S. forces had struck Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) missile launch sites on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz, while the IRGC said it attacked air bases in Jordan. Foreign and institutional investors were net sellers on the KOSPI, while retail investors bought shares but failed to offset the pressure. Most large-cap stocks and major sectors declined, with real estate the only advancing sector. Kiwoom Securities analyst Han Ji-young said oil prices, interest rates and a more than 3% decline in KOSPI 200 night futures weighed on the open, while expecting losses to narrow during the session on bargain hunting and a more than 6% after-hours rise in Dell following an earnings surprise tied to strong AI server sales. The won opened at 1,373.8 per dollar, up 1.2 won from the previous session, with the weaker currency adding to foreign investors' selling pressure.