'Black Monday' Kosdaq plunge triggers marketwide circuit breaker
The Kospi and Kosdaq both triggered emergency curbs Monday after a broad market selloff sent the Kosdaq down more than 9 percent.
A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi and Kosdaq opening on June 8.
NEWS1
Korean stocks plunged Monday, with trading halted on both the main Kospi and the tech-heavy secondary market Kosdaq as panicked investors dumped shares in what markets described as a "Black Monday."
The Kosdaq had fallen more than eight percent from the previous session's close as of 2:37 p.m., triggering a level 1 circuit breaker, which is activated when an index remains more than eight percent below its previous close for at least one minute and effectively halts trading for 20 minutes.
At the time the circuit breaker was issued, the Kosdaq stood at 921.85, down 80.59 points, or 8.03 percent, from its previous close of 1,002.44.
A circuit breaker is a mechanism that temporarily suspends trading in stocks and related derivatives to cushion the market from severe shocks during sharp declines.
As of 3:30 p.m., the Kosdaq traded at 911.39, down 91.05 points, or 9.08 percent, from the previous session. The index opened at 959.61.
The benchmark Kospi also suffered steep losses. Early in the session, both a circuit breaker and a sell-side sidecar trading curb were triggered on the main board.
A sidecar halts program trading for five minutes when certain market indexes — Kospi 200 futures — fluctuate beyond a designated threshold.
BY SHIN HYE-YEON [[email protected]]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
