South Korea’s KOSPI index experienced a sharp decline of over 8% on Monday, triggering a circuit breaker to manage the market volatility. The trading halt, lasting 20 minutes, was implemented to curb the rapid sell-off.
The Korea Exchange (KRX) activated the circuit breaker around 10:31 a.m. KST after the KOSPI plummeted by more than 8% in a single minute. This marks the second time a circuit breaker has been initiated on the main South Korean stock exchange this year.
Upon activation, the KOSPI stood at 5,132.07 points, reflecting an 8.11% decrease from the previous trading session.
Despite retail investors’ net purchases of shares totaling 2.98 trillion won ($2 billion USD), this wasn’t enough to stabilize the index. Foreign and institutional investors sold off 1.8 trillion won and 1.23 trillion won worth of shares, respectively, contributing to the market downturn.
Shares of Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) fell sharply to 169,300 won, a decrease of 10.04%, while SK Hynix (000660.KS) also saw a significant drop to 817,000 won, down 11.59%.
Concurrently, a sell-side sidecar was activated on the tech-heavy KOSDAQ index. The secondary stock market decreased by 7.15% to 1,072.06 points.
As of 10:42 a.m. KST, the Korean won (KRW) was trading at 1,496.38 against the US dollar (USD), nearing the critical threshold of 1,500 KRW/USD.
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