South Korean stocks plunged Thursday as a technology-led sell-off sent Samsung Electronics and SK hynix down more than 10 percent, triggering circuit breakers on both the Kospi and Kosdaq.
The benchmark Kospi tumbled 8.13 percent to 5,515.76 as of 1:17 p.m., after opening 5.59 percent lower and extending losses throughout the session.
The sharp decline triggered a sell-sidecar at 9:07 a.m., temporarily suspending sell orders in index futures-linked program trading. A circuit breaker followed at 12:38 p.m., halting trading across the market for 20 minutes.
Chipmakers bore the brunt of the sell-off. SK hynix sank 11.35 percent to 1.26 million won ($933), while Samsung Electronics plunged 10.13 percent to 208,500 won.
The rout wiped out enough value to push SK hynix's market capitalization below the 1,000 trillion won threshold, to 929.18 trillion won.
Losses spread across technology stocks, with Samsung Electro-Mechanics plunging 16.81 percent to 1.15 million won and SK Square shedding 10.45 percent to 763,000 won.
The tech-heavy Kosdaq also suffered heavy losses, triggering a sell-sidecar at 9:12 a.m. and a circuit breaker at 12:23 p.m.
It was the first time since July 29 that both markets had activated circuit breakers on the same day.
silverstar@heraldcorp.com