KOSPI Plunges in Panic, Briefly Breaks Below 7,500 Intraday... Down More Than 8% [Morning Market Update]

[Financial News] KOSPI and the KOSDAQ Index both tumbled right after the market opened, breaking below the 8,000 and 1,000 levels, respectively. The feared "black Monday" arrived amid a combination of negative factors, including a sharp selloff in U.S. semiconductor stocks and a weak won.
As of 9:39 a.m. on the 8th, KOSPI was trading at 7,792.56, down 368.03 points, or 4.51%, from the previous session. It opened at 8,048.09, down 112.50 points, or 1.38%, and at one point during the session fell as much as 8.80% to 7,442.73.
At 9:03 a.m., Korea Exchange (KRX) triggered a Circuit breaker on the Korea Exchange Main Board Market. Trading in KOSPI was temporarily halted for 20 minutes.
Foreign investors were net buyers of 203.8 billion won worth of shares on the Korea Exchange Main Board Market. Institutions also posted net buying of 251.1 billion won. Retail investors, meanwhile, were net sellers of 480.1 billion won.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and SK hynix were down 6.99% and 4.54%, respectively. During the session, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. briefly fell below 300,000 won, while SK hynix dropped below 2 million won.
The KOSDAQ Index was trading at 945.21, down 57.23 points, or 5.71%, from the previous day. A sell sidecar, which temporarily suspends program sell orders, was also triggered on KOSDAQ during the session.


dschoi@fnnews.com Choi Du-seon Reporter