The Kospi surged more than 4 percent on Tuesday, triggering a buy-side sidecar — a temporary suspension of program buy orders — on the main bourse. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the two largest stocks by market capitalization, led the rally with gains of 5 to 7 percent.
Korea Exchange said program buy orders were suspended for five minutes starting at 12:41:29 p.m. due to a sharp move in the KOSPI 200 futures index. It was the 39th sidecar activation of the year — 19 on the buy side and 20 on the sell side.
At the time of activation, the KOSPI 200 futures index stood at 1,086.58, up 53.44 points, or 5.17 percent, from the previous close. The Kospi sidecar is triggered when the KOSPI 200 futures price rises 5 percent or more above its reference price and holds that level for at least one minute, halting program buy orders for five minutes.
As of 1:37 p.m., the Kospi was up 297.64 points, or 4.57 percent, at 6,813.91. Foreign investors and institutions were net buyers of 512.6 billion won ($346 million) and 1.7 trillion won, respectively, while retail investors were net sellers of 2.17 trillion won.
Samsung Electronics was trading at 262,500 won, up 18,500 won, or 7.5 percent, from the previous session. SK Hynix rose 5.7 percent to 1.87 million won.
SK Square gained 6.7 percent to 1.26 million won, Samsung Electro-Mechanics rose 3.2 percent to 1.32 million won, and Hyundai Motor advanced 1.2 percent to 404,000 won.
The Kosdaq, which had been in negative territory during the morning session, also turned higher, gaining 0.64 percent to 754.42 at the same time.
yuni@heraldcorp.com
