After South Korea's benchmark KOSPI suffered its largest daily drop in almost seven years on Thursday,... the index recouped some of its losses in early trading on Friday.<br />For more, our Ko Roon-hee is on the line for us.<br />Roon-hee, tell us the latest. <br /><br />Ji-yoon.<br />Korea's benchmark KOSPI opened slightly higher at market open on Friday... at two-thousand-one-hundred-31-point-six-six. <br /> The main bourse closed at the lowest level seen this year in the previous session... falling under two-thousand-one-hundred-30 points.<br />Korea's tech-heavy, junior KOSDAQ index opened at seven-hundred-four-point-seven-two... down almost zero-point-four percent from Thursday's close.<br /><br />The KOSPI is continuing to rise... and as of 11:30 am, the index stood at two-thousand-one-hundred-54-point-24,... a shade over one-percent from yesterday's close.<br />The KOSDAQ moved up as well...to seven-hundred-23-point 53.<br /><br />Analysts attribute the recent fall to rising trade tensions between China and the U.S.,... and contagion fears in the emerging markets. <br />This is because many Korean companies rely highly on exports to these economies.<br />The index rose slightly this morning...mainly due to on strong buying by foreigners and institutions.<br /><br />So we saw a slight rise in KOSPI in Korea, but what about the financial markets around the world? <br /> <br />Markets continued to plummet on both sides of the Atlantic on Thursday. <br />In London, the FTSE 100 shed close to two percent.<br />Germany's DAX finished down close to one-and-a-half percent,... while France's CAC 40 lost one-point-nine percent.<br />The pan-European Stoxx 600 shed close to 2 percent,... with financial services and oil and gas stocks leading the losses.<br />A dramatic sell-off on Wall Street a day earlier prompted the European benchmark to fall to its lowest level in more than 21 months. <br />U.S. markets saw another day of dramatic losses on Thursday. <br />The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled more than two percent.<br />The tech-heavy NASDAQ ended the day down 1-point-25 percent. <br />The S&P 500 didn't fare any better,... losing more than two percent.<br />Stocks have been stuck in the red because investors are growing increasingly concerned over rising interest rates. <br />That's all from me at this hour Ji-yoon. <br />
