An electronic board showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index at a dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on Tuesday. (Yonhap) South Korean stocks closed lower Tuesday as a foreign-selling spree of major techs continued, tracking an overnight tech slump on Wall Street. The local currency weakened against the US dollar.After choppy trading, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 244.38 points, or 3.25 percent, to close at 7,271.66.After opening 1.2 percent lower, the index plunged as much as 4.98 percent to 7,141.91 in the morning session before rebounding in the afternoon, suffering extreme swings throughout the session.Overnight, US stocks closed mixed, as investors remained cautious after US President Donald Trump said he had postponed a planned attack on Iran at the request of Gulf leaders.Some US big techs, such as Apple and Microsoft, closed lower. Investors also await the earnings report from artificial intelligence chip giant Nvidia this week.Foreigners extended their sell-offs to a ninth consecutive session, centering on chipmakers, automakers and other market heavyweights.Most market heavyweights traded lower.Samsung Electronics went down 1.96 percent to close at 275,500 won, while SK hynix lost 5.16 percent at 1,745,000 won.The Korean won was quoted at 1,507.8 won against the US dollar at 3:30 p.m., down 7.5 won from the previous session. (Yonhap)