SEOUL, March 5 (Xinhua) -- South Korean stocks staged a dramatic recovery Thursday from historic crashes over the past two days.
The recovery came amid signs of an easing oil price surge sparked by the ongoing Iran conflict, Yonhap news agency reported.
The benchmark KOSPI surged 490.36 points, or 9.63 percent, to close at 5,583.90, and the smaller KOSDAQ jumped 137.97 points, or 14.10 percent, to finish at 1,116.41.
The KOSPI and the KOSDAQ plummeted 12.06 percent and 14 percent each on Wednesday after diving 7.24 percent and 4.62 percent on Tuesday.
During the morning session, the Korea Exchange activated buy-side sidecars on both the KOSPI and the KOSDAQ markets.
When the KOSPI 200 futures rise or fall by more than 5 percent for at least one minute, the KOSPI sidecar is issued to halt program trading orders for five minutes.
The KOSDAQ sidecar is triggered when the KOSDAQ 150 futures rise or fall by over 6 percent and the KOSDAQ 150 index rises or falls by over 3 percent simultaneously for at least 1 minute.
Retail investors went on bargain-hunting to prop up the KOSPI, while foreign and institutional investors spearheaded the KOSDAQ's recovery.
The South Korean won versus the U.S. dollar exchange rate finished its daytime session at 1,468.1 won per dollar as of 3:30 p.m. local time, down 8.1 won from the previous day's daytime close.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics and memory chip giant SK Hynix soared 11.27 percent and 10.84 percent each.
The country's top automaker, Hyundai Motor, spiked 9.38 percent, and the largest battery maker, LG Energy Solution, advanced 6.91 percent.
The No. 1 biopharmaceutical contract manufacturer, Samsung Biologics, rose 8.64 percent, and the leading aerospace and defense company, Hanwha Aerospace, gained 4.38 percent.
The biggest shipbuilder, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, picked up 9.39 percent, and the energy infrastructure leader Doosan Enerbility was up 12.28 percent. ■