Seoul shares pare gains in late-morning trade

SEOUL, Sept. 8 (Yonhap) -- South Korean stocks pared earlier gains and traded marginally higher late Thursday morning, as a sharp drop in brokerage houses weighed on the broader index, analysts said.
After rising as much as 1.34 percent, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 0.09 percent, or 1.69 points, to 1,835.15 as of 11:20 a.m.
The KOSPI got off to a strong start as a German court's ruling to support eurozone bailout plans fanned investor optimism. But speculations that local brokerages may follow the suit of Daewoo Securities, which announced a large-scale share sale on Wednesday, sparked massive sell-offs of local brokerage houses.
Daewoo Securities, the country's No. 2 brokerage house by market cap, dived by the daily limit of 15 percent after it unveiled a 1.4-trillion won capital increase plan to shore up its investment banking business. Woori Investment & Securities also plummeted by the daily limit.
The local unit was trading at 1,074.3 won to the greenback as of 11:20 a.m., down 2.5 won from Wednesday's