Stocks rebound sharply after one-day plunge

Feb 04, 2026, 07:41 am

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Dealers work at the dealing room of Hana Bank’s Seoul headquarters as the KOSPI surged nearly 7% on Feb. 3, closing at a record high. / Yonhap

South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI surged more than 6 percent on Feb. 3, posting its highest-ever closing level as the market staged a swift rebound just one day after a sharp sell-off.

The index jumped 6.84 percent from the previous session to finish at 5,288.08, marking its strongest daily gain in five years and 10 months. The sharp upswing followed a rapid easing of the prior day’s correction, triggering a buying-side “sidecar” mechanism after a selling-side sidecar had been activated the day before.

According to the Korea Exchange, the rally was driven by heavy buying from foreign and institutional investors. After dumping 2.52 trillion won and 2.21 trillion won worth of shares, respectively, in the previous session, foreigners bought 705.1 billion won and institutions purchased 2.17 trillion won worth of stocks on the day.

All of the top 30 stocks by market capitalization on the KOSPI closed higher. Market heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix jumped 11.37 percent and 9.28 percent, respectively.

Fueled by the surge in buying, a KOSPI buying-side sidecar was triggered at 9:26 a.m., the opposite of the selling-side sidecar activated the previous day. It marked the second sidecar activation on the KOSPI this year. A buying-side sidecar is triggered when KOSPI 200 futures rise more than 5 percent and remain at that level for at least one minute.

Im Jung-eun, a researcher at KB Securities, said, “The KOSPI saw a broad-based rally, with advancing stocks accounting for nearly 87 percent of the market,” adding, “As the previous day’s correction quickly subsided, the index recovered to levels seen before the sharp drop.”

#KOSPI #South Korean stocks #market rebound #sidecar mechanism #foreign investors