Seoul shares down 0.32 pct in late-morning trade

SEOUL, Sept. 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korean stocks traded 0.32 percent lower late Friday morning, led by banks and financial companies, as foreign and retail investors reduced risky assets after U.S. President Barack Obama's speech, analysts said.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 6 points to 1,840.64 as of 11:20 a.m.
Leading card firm Samsung Card lost more than 3 percent after police launched a probe into a leakage of personal data that allegedly compromised its 800,000 members.
Hynix Semiconductor, the world's second-largest chipmaker, spiked around 5 percent on views that it would benefit from production cuts of its smaller rivals. Its bigger rival Samsung Electronics, however, shed 0.25 percent ahead of a German court's ruling on whether to accept Apple's request to ban sales of its tablet computers.
The local currency was trading at 1,074.75 won to the greenback as of 11:20 a.m., up 0.25 won from Thursday's close.