Foreign sell-off pushes South Korean stocks below 7,000 points; frequent surges and crashes trigger "sidecar" mechanism 35 times this year

Odaily reported that, according to South Korean media, the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) briefly fell below the 7,000-point mark during trading, triggering the seventh circuit breaker this year. Due to renewed geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and Iran, foreign and institutional investors engaged in heavy stock selling, causing the index to decline sharply. 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 foreign investors net selling 2.23 trillion won and institutional investors net selling approximately 570 billion won, while retail investors net purchased nearly 2.7 trillion won. Among institutional investors, the National Pension Service net purchased about 220 billion won. Recently, the South Korean stock market has experienced wild swings, with sudden surges and crashes. During this morning's session, sellers triggered the 18th "program trading halt mechanism" (sidecar mechanism) of the year, and the circuit breaker was even activated in the afternoon.

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