Foreign sell-off causes South Korean stocks to fall below 7000 points, with frequent surges and crashes triggering "sidecar" mechanism 35 times this year

According to South Korean media reports, the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) briefly fell below the 7,000-point mark during intraday trading, triggering the seventh circuit breaker this year. As geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran escalate again, foreign and institutional investors have been heavily selling stocks, leading to a sharp decline in the index. This marks the first time in nearly two months, since May 4, that KOSPI has fallen below 7,000 points during trading.

Data shows that foreign and institutional investors led the sell-off, with foreign investors net selling 2.23 trillion won and institutional investors net selling approximately 570 billion won, while individual investors net bought nearly 2.7 trillion won. Among institutional investors, the National Pension Service net bought approximately 220 billion won. Recently, the South Korean stock market has experienced extreme volatility, with both sharp surges and crashes. During today's morning session, sellers triggered the 18th "program trading halt mechanism" (sidecar mechanism) this year, and the circuit breaker was even activated in the afternoon.

Since the beginning of this year, the South Korean stock market has experienced a cumulative total of 17 buy-side triggered "sidecar" operations and 18 sell-side triggered "sidecar" operations, amounting to 35 times in total.