Kospi rebounds above 7,800, triggering buy-side sidecars on both markets

The Kospi rebounded Tuesday, shaking off the previous session's sharp losses to push back above the 7,800 level. The index surged more than 4% in early trading, prompting simultaneous buy-side sidecar activations on both the main bourse and the Kosdaq.

As of 9:20 a.m., the Kospi stood at 7,752.10, up 267.69 points, or 3.58 percent, from the previous session.

The index opened 213.35 points, or 2.85 percent, higher at 7,697.76 before extending its gains, briefly touching 7,802.65 intraday to reclaim the 7,800 level.

With both the main bourse and the Kosdaq each jumping more than 4% in early trading, buy-side sidecars — which suspend program buy orders for five minutes — were triggered on both markets.

The previous session had seen circuit breakers and sell-side sidecars activated on both markets amid the steep selloff. Just one session later, the sharp rebound prompted buy-side sidecars on both exchanges.

Tuesday's activations marked the 23rd Kospi sidecar and the 13th Kosdaq sidecar of the year.

On the main bourse, retail investors led the advance with net purchases of 478.8 billion won (about $310 million), while foreigners and institutions were net sellers of 423.7 billion won and 63.8 billion won, respectively. Foreign investors have now net sold for 22 consecutive sessions since May 7.

Samsung Electronics gained 3.21 percent to 305,000 won, while SK Hynix advanced 6.38 percent to 2,033,000 won — both reclaiming the closely watched 300,000-won and 2,000,000-won thresholds in a single session.

The rebound was driven by bargain hunting following the previous session's steep decline, as well as a broad overnight rally in US technology stocks that lifted investor sentiment.

Overnight on Wall Street, Nvidia rose 1.73 percent, Micron Technology surged 9.87 percent and Intel jumped 11.19 percent, pushing the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up 5.61 percent.

Among large-cap stocks, SK Square climbed 5.81 percent, Samsung Electro-Mechanics surged 9.44 percent and Samsung Life advanced 2.93 percent.

The Kosdaq was up 42.71 points, or 4.69 percent, at 954.10 at the same time, after opening 26.30 points, or 2.89 percent, higher at 937.69 and extending its gains through the morning.

On the Kosdaq, foreigners and institutions were net buyers of 82.9 billion won and 16.5 billion won, respectively, while retail investors were the sole net sellers at 100.6 billion won.

Among Kosdaq large caps, Alteogen surged 9.67 percent, Jusung Engineering climbed 6.40 percent, Kolon TissueGene rose 6.05 percent and Lino Industrial jumped 16.22 percent.

In the Seoul foreign exchange market, the won opened at 1,529.4 won per dollar, strengthening 5.6 won from the previous close.