KOSPI Plunges 5%, Circuit Breaker Activated; Won Breaks 1500 Mark vs. Dollar

On the morning of the 23rd, the KOSPI index fell over 5% to the 5440 level, and the won/dollar exchange rate surpassed 1500 won. Market volatility expanded, with the KOSPI 200 futures price plunging and triggering a sell-side circuit breaker. A sell-side circuit breaker is a measure to ease market volatility by suspending the effect of program sell orders for five minutes. As of 10:09 AM on March 23rd, the KOSPI was at 5445.95, down 5.8% from the previous trading day. The index opened for trading at 5580.15, down 3.48%. Share prices of the top 10 companies by market capitalization on the KOSPI all declined, with SK Square (-9.54%), SK Hynix (-6.95%), and Doosan Enerbility (-6.48%) among those seeing sharp drops.

In morning KOSPI trading, institutional investors net sold 1.6772 trillion won and foreign investors net sold 1.5363 trillion won, while individual investors net bought 3.0911 trillion won.

At the same time, the KOSDAQ index was at 1112.21, down 4.25% from the previous trading day. In the KOSDAQ market, foreign investors net sold 83.9 billion won and institutional investors net sold 7.7 billion won, while individual investors net bought 98.3 billion won. While share prices of the top 10 companies by market capitalization on the KOSDAQ generally declined, ABL Bio (-9.34%) saw the steepest drop, whereas Samchun Dang Pharm (4.96%) and Peptron (0.29%) shares rose.

Analysis of the energy crisis stemming from the war in Iran suggests a prolonged period of high oil prices is likely. On the Seoul foreign exchange market on March 23rd, the won/dollar exchange rate opened at 1504.9 won, up 4.3 won from the previous trading day.