Kospi dips below 5,600 after second straight circuit breaker
Kospi fell below 5,600 to an intraday low of 5,532.33 after triggering market-wide circuit breakers for a second consecutive day; bitcoin rose above $64,000.
South Korea’s benchmark Kospi fell below 5,600 on Wednesday after the Korea Exchange halted trading for a second consecutive day. The index hit an intraday low of 5,532.33 after sliding 491.33 points, or 8.15%, from Tuesday’s close of 6,023.66.
The exchange paused trading on both the Kospi and the smaller Kosdaq index for 20 minutes. Kosdaq dropped 56.85 points, or 8.05%, to 649.00 at 12:19 p.m. local time; the Kospi reached 5,532.33 at 12:32 p.m.
The consecutive halts were the first in South Korean market history. The selloff followed reports that a Chinese company began mass production of a domestically made deep ultraviolet (DUV) chipmaking tool, a development cited as a factor putting pressure on South Korea’s memory-chip exporters, including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
SK Hynix reported a 557% year-on-year increase in quarterly profit but missed elevated market expectations. The company’s shares fell sharply during the session.
Foreign investors were net sellers during the trading day. Market participants also pointed to the larger size of single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds that expanded earlier this year; those products can magnify price moves in individual large-cap names and increase the risk of rapid index declines when heavily held components fall.
Bitcoin diverged from the equity selloff. After falling about 2.7% on Tuesday to roughly $63,000, bitcoin climbed above $64,400 on Wednesday. Comments from Senate Majority Leader John Thune that the CLARITY Act would not clear the Senate before its August recess were cited by market participants as reducing short-term policy uncertainty for some crypto investors.
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix remain the two most heavily weighted stocks on the Kospi. Korean regulators and exchange officials have not announced interventions beyond the automatic circuit-breaker pauses. Market observers are watching overseas markets and foreign flows for signs of further pressure on Seoul’s indexes.
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