Foreign sell-off drags KOSPI below 7,000 points; frequent surges and plunges trigger "sidecar" mechanism 35 times this year

Odaily Planet Daily News According to Korean media reports, the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) briefly fell below the 7,000-point mark during trading, triggering the seventh circuit breaker this year. As geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and Iran intensified again, foreign and institutional investors dumped a large number of stocks, causing the index to plummet. This marks the first time in nearly two months since May 4th that KOSPI has fallen below 7,000 points during trading.

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

Since the beginning of this year, the Korean stock market has recorded a total of 35 sidecar operations, including 17 triggered by buyers and 18 triggered by sellers.