Kospi opens sharply lower on tech slump, triggers 10th sell-side sidecar this year

The Korea Exchange issued a sell-side sidecar — a temporary halt in program trading — on the bourse Kospi after stocks opened sharply lower on Friday morning and a selling spree began.

The benchmark Kospi lost 316.21 points, or 3.66 percent, to 8,323.2 at the opening bell. The fall came as investors took a breather following a recent rally in tech shares amid uncertainty over the U.S.-Iran peace deal.

The sell-side sidecar was triggered just minutes after the market opened and marked the 10th just this year alone.

Overnight, major U.S. stocks closed mixed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.73 percent, and the S&P 500 added 0.41 percent to 7,584.31. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite slipped 0.09 percent, as Broadcom and other AI-related stocks weighed on the index.

Oil prices retreated after three consecutive sessions of gains, as investor sentiment improved following reports that Israel had agreed to a conditional cease-fire with Lebanon.

BY YOON SO-YEON, YONHAP [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]