'War and Oil Price Shock' KOSPI Plunges Over 7% in Early Trading... Sell-Sidecar Triggered

KOSPI Plunges Over 400 Points, Falling Below 5,200
KOSDAQ Also Suffers Sharp Decline

On March 9, the Korean stock market experienced a sharp decline in early trading, triggered by concerns over a prolonged war between the United States and Iran and the shock of soaring oil prices.

As of 9:22 a.m. on this day, the KOSPI index was trading at 5,182.02, down 402.8 points (7.21%) from the previous session. The KOSPI opened at 5,265.37, a drop of 319.5 points (5.72%), and the decline has deepened since. Foreign investors have made net sales of 692.5 billion won, and institutional investors have net sold 468.8 billion won. Individual investors, meanwhile, have been net buyers, purchasing 1.134 trillion won.

All sectors are showing weakness. Declines are widespread, including securities (-8.42%), electrical and electronics (-7.64%), insurance (-6.90%), finance (-6.64%), manufacturing (-6.56%), construction (-6.31%), electricity and gas (-6.14%), medical precision instruments (-6.02%), pharmaceuticals (-5.67%), entertainment and culture (-5.62%), and IT services (-5.53%).

Among KOSPI’s top market capitalization stocks, Hyundai Motor (-9.40%), Samsung C&T (-9.17%), Hyundai Mobis (-8.90%), SK Square (-8.86%), Kia (-8.68%), Mirae Asset Securities (-8.49%), Korea Zinc (-8.28%), Samsung Electronics (-8.02%), SK hynix (-8.12%), Samsung Life Insurance (-7.62%), Samsung Electronics Preferred (-7.58%), Samsung Biologics (-5.84%), and Shinhan Financial Group (-5.66%) have posted particularly steep declines.

With the KOSPI plummeting, the Korea Exchange activated a sell-sidecar at around 9:06 a.m. A sell-sidecar is a mechanism that halts the effectiveness of sell program trading orders for five minutes when the KOSPI200 futures fall for one minute.

On the 9th, the KOSPI was displayed in the dealing room of Hana Bank headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul. On that day, the KOSPI opened lower and fell to the 5,200 range in the early trading session. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

At the same time, the KOSDAQ index struggled as well, recording 1,086.70, a drop of 67.97 points (5.89%) compared to the previous day. The KOSDAQ opened at 1,096.48, down 58.19 points (5.04%), and losses have since deepened. Foreign investors have net purchased 22.4 billion won, and institutional investors have net purchased 43.5 billion won, while individual investors have net sold 40.6 billion won.

Among KOSDAQ’s top market capitalization stocks, Rainbow Robotics (-9.62%) saw a significant drop, as did ISC (-7.14%), Wonik IPS (-6.97%), EO Technics (-7.06%), Caregen (-7.57%), Aimed Bio (-6.89%), HPSP (-6.06%), Voronoi (-6.07%), Kolon TissueGene (-5.75%), Samchundang Pharm (-5.76%), Ligachem Bio (-5.47%), LIG Nex1 (-5.28%), and Ecopro (-5.00%).

Meanwhile, on March 6 (local time), the New York stock market closed broadly lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, focused on blue-chip stocks, ended at 47,501.55, down 453.19 points (-0.95%) from the previous session. The S&P 500, which tracks large-cap stocks, fell 90.69 points (-1.33%) to 6,740.02, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed at 22,387.68, dropping 361.31 points (-1.59%) from the previous close.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.