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A view of the Hana Bank dealing room on the 15th. / Yonhap News

As the KOSPI and KOSDAQ indexes plunged on the 15th, program sell sidecars (temporary suspensions of program sell orders) were triggered across both markets.

According to the Korea Exchange on this day, program sell order trading was halted on the KOSPI market at 9:07 a.m. and on the KOSDAQ market at 9:12 a.m.

A sell sidecar on the KOSPI is activated when KOSPI 200 futures prices fall by 5% or more from the base price and the drop lasts for one minute, while a KOSDAQ sell sidecar is triggered when KOSDAQ 150 futures prices drop by 6% or more and the KOSDAQ 150 index falls by 3% or more for one minute.

On the KOSPI market, declines widened centered on large-cap semiconductor shares. As of 9:18 a.m., Samsung Electronics was trading at 215,750 won, down 7.00% from the previous trading session, while SK Hynix slid 8.95% to 1,292,000 won.

Sharp drops centered on large-cap stocks continued in the KOSDAQ market as well. At the same hour, shares of top market-cap companies fell across the board, including Jusung Engineering (-12.68%), Ecopro (-8.18%), and Ecopro BM (-8.24%).

At the same time, the KOSPI index was trading at 5,632.96, down 6.25% from the previous session, while the KOSDAQ index stood at 772.10, down 6.28%.

                                                                                                            Han Hye-sung