As foreigners made large net purchases in the KOSPI 200 futures market, the fourth "buy-sidecar" of the year was triggered on the Korea Exchange. The KOSPI index is surging nearly 5%.
The Korea Exchange (KRX) said a buy-sidecar was triggered at 2:34 p.m. on the 18th as KOSPI 200 futures rose more than 5% from the previous day for over one minute. In the main board, this is the fourth buy-sidecar this year, and including sell-sidecars, nine sidecars have been triggered this year.
When a sidecar is triggered, the effectiveness of program buy and sell quotes is suspended for five minutes. As of 2:34 p.m., net program buying reached 1.54 trillion won.
Foreign investors are showing a buying advantage in both the cash and futures markets on the main board. As of 2:55 p.m., they had a 740 billion won buying advantage in the cash market and were net long more than 14,000 contracts in KOSPI 200 futures.
The KOSPI index climbed nearly 5%, breaking through 5,900 points. Since the opening of Nvidia's annual conference "GTC 2026," expectations for an expansion of the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem have grown, drawing large inflows of investment into large-cap semiconductors, Robotics, and nuclear power-related sectors.