With Middle East risk spreading across financial markets after the United States and Israel attacked Iran, circuit breakers were triggered in succession on the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets following sidecars.
On the 4th, the Korea Exchange (KRX) said at 11:19 a.m. that because the KOSPI and KOSDAQ indexes fell 8% or more from the previous closing levels (sustained for one minute), trading on the KOSDAQ market would be halted for 20 minutes. This is the seventh time on record.
At this time, the KOSPI index was down 468.98 points (−8.10%) at 5,322.93 from the previous session, while the KOSDAQ index was down 92.46 points (8.13%) at 1,045.24 at the same time.
In the main board, foreigners sold 1.317 trillion won in stocks, and in the KOSDAQ market, individuals sold 453.0 billion won, pulling the indexes lower.
Earlier, sidecars were also triggered on both markets. It was the first time in about four months that sell-side sidecars on the KOSPI and KOSDAQ were triggered together, since Nov. 5 last year when the market plunged on controversy over overvaluation of artificial intelligence (AI).