KOSPI Drops Below 8,000, Triggers Yet Another 2026 Trading Halt
The KOSPI sank beneath 8,000 on July 2. The drop pushed the Korea Exchange (KRX) to activate a sell-side sidecar inside minutes of the opening bell.
The Korea Exchange suspended program buying and selling on KOSPI-listed shares for 5 minutes. Heavy promoting in semiconductor shares drove the transfer. The benchmark opened 4.46% decrease and stored falling from there.
Another Halt in a Record-Breaking Year
The index had dropped 534.25 factors, or 6.43%, to 7,769.16 by 9:51 a.m. native time. A sell-side sidecar triggers robotically as soon as KOSPI 200 futures fall 5% or extra for at the very least one minute.
Thursday’s pause is much from an remoted occasion. The change has repeatedly triggered sidecars and circuit breakers all through 2026. Volatility this yr has already topped the 2008 monetary disaster, when the KOSPI set its prior annual sidecar record of 26 halts.
By late June, the KRX had logged near 30 sidecar activations and 5 circuit breakers this yr alone. Both figures already beat that 2008 tally.
Chipmakers Bear the Brunt
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix collectively make up roughly half of the KOSPI’s market capitalization. The two chipmakers have repeatedly pushed these swings. Their shares prolonged losses once more Thursday, monitoring a global chip stock selloff that began on Wall Street in a single day.
The Nasdaq Composite slid 0.66% Wednesday. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF lost 5.4%. Micron Technology and Sandisk every dropped greater than 10%. The rout adopted weeks of sharp reversals within the KOSPI’s chip-driven rally, a rally that had pushed the index to file highs earlier this yr.
Semiconductor shares nonetheless dominate the index. Traders now face a well-recognized query: will Thursday’s selloff deepen additional, or fade as rapidly as prior swings have this yr.
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