"Real-Time Stock Trading Until 8 PM"... Morning Hours Also Under Review

[Anchor]

Starting tomorrow (September 14), investors will be able to buy and sell stocks in real-time on the Korea Exchange until 8 PM.

In 〈Money Move〉, reporter Min Gyeongho explains in detail how this differs from the operations of the alternative trading system "Nextrade."

[Reporter]

Previously, real-time trading of stocks listed on the KOSPI and KOSDAQ through the Korea Exchange was only available until 3:20 PM.

Trading was available until 4 PM using the closing price announced at 3:30 PM, followed by after-hours single-price trading until 6 PM, where orders were collected in 10-minute intervals and executed at once.

Price fluctuation limits were also restricted to 10 percent.

Starting tomorrow, an after-market trading session will be available in virtually real-time, similar to daytime trading, from 4 PM to 8 PM.

While certain order types such as market orders will be restricted, the price fluctuation limit will remain the same at 30 percent up and down, and the circuit breaker-like volatility interruption system will operate identically when volatility expands.

Of course, the alternative trading system, Nextrade, has existed before.

It has served as an after-market from 3:30 PM, when the Korea Exchange determines its closing price, until 8 PM.

However, while only about 600 stocks—consisting of KOSPI 200 and KOSDAQ 150 companies plus some additional ones—could be traded on Nextrade, the market operated by the Korea Exchange lists approximately 2,700 stocks.

The exchange stated that more than 95 percent of these will be available for trading starting tomorrow.

To mitigate volatility, products such as ETFs and ETNs have been excluded, along with investment warning stocks, ultra-low liquidity stocks, and administrative issues.

Consequently, the KOSPI and KOSDAQ indices themselves do not move, and market-wide circuit breakers or sidecars are not triggered.

The introduction of this after-market comes as exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are pursuing 24-hour trading.

[Song Ki-myung / Head of Stock Market Division, Korea Exchange : "In the case of foreign investors, an environment will be established where they can invest in the Korean stock market regardless of time differences, so we expect accessibility to our domestic stock market to be greatly enhanced."]

The exchange also plans to review the introduction of a morning pre-market session ahead of the regular trading hours in the future.

(Video by Choe Dae-woong | Video Editing by Kim Jong-mi)

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