SEOUL, Oct 13, 2008 (AFP) - South Korean shares surged more than 3.6 percent soon after opening Monday on hopes that global efforts to tackle the financial crisis will stabilise markets, analysts said.

The KOSPI index was up 45.09 points, or 3.63 percent, at 1,286.56 in the first 15 minutes of trading. The index had lost 12.5 percent of its value last week.

Steep gains prompted the Korea Exchange, the bourse operator, to activate the so-called 'sidecar' to suspend trading temporarily to cool the market.

Most large-cap shares gained substantially. The country's top steelmaker POSCO rose 4.89 percent while leading shipyard Hyundai Heavy Industries gained 3.3 percent.

The won was trading at 1,246 to the dollar as of 9:15 am (0015 GMT), up 63 won from Friday's close.