South Korean stocks started weaker Monday as Wall Street sharply declined on financial jitters in some emerging countries, analysts said.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 35.97 points, or 1.85 percent, to 1,904.59 in the first 11 minutes of trading.

Market leader Samsung Electronics fell 1.07 percent and top automaker Hyundai Motor shed 2.19 percent.

The Seoul government said Sunday that the Federal Reserve's tapering of quantitative easing, along with the slowing economic growth of China, were causing financial instability in developing nations including Argentina and Turkey.

Wall Street lost ground on Friday on currency depreciation of emerging countries. The Dow Jones industrial average declined 1.96 percent and tech-laden Nasdaq composite index fell 2.15 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,086.90 against the U.S. dollar as of 9:11 a.m., down 6.5 won from Friday's close. (Yonhap News)