SEOUL, June 26 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's bourse operator triggered a circuit breaker on Friday amid big tech sell-offs.
The benchmark KOSPI dropped 730.49 points, or 8.18 percent, to trade at 8,199.81 as of 12:18 p.m. local time (0318 GMT), while the smaller KOSDAQ tumbled 45.87 points, or 5.17 percent, to finish at 841.94.
The Korea Exchange activated the circuit breaker on the KOSPI market following a bout of panic selling in big tech shares such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.
Foreign investors led the panic selling due to rising fears of lower global demand for memory chips and concerns about overinvestment among the U.S. big tech companies.
A level 1 circuit breaker was triggered in the KOSPI after the index sustained a loss of over 8 percent for more than one minute.
The circuit breaker is issued in stages when the KOSPI or KOSDAQ dives by 8 percent, 15 percent and 20 percent.
The first two stages halt trading for 20 minutes, followed by a 10-minute single price auction, while the final stage instantly shuts down the market for the day. ■