KOSPI Rebounds After Plunge Amid Extreme Volatility: Intra-day Swing Hits 496 Points

The KOSPI has successfully rebounded, shaking off the shock of yesterday's 10% plunge, but the index once again highlighted extreme volatility as it experienced a roller-coaster session throughout the day.

The KOSPI closed at 8,471.02 today (the 24th), up 267.18 points or 3.26%.

The index opened at 8,356.79, up 1.86%, and at one point climbed as high as 8,577.52, a gain of 4.55%.

However, it turned downward in the afternoon, showing mixed movements before sliding to 8,080.99, threatening the 8,000-point threshold.

The intra-day volatility, based on the difference between the daily high and low, reached 496.53 points.

This marks the fifth-highest level this month and the eighth-highest in history.

It serves as a testament to the wild swings that unfolded during the trading session.

Out of the 17 trading days this month, the KOSPI has seen daily closing fluctuations of 4% or more on seven occasions: the 5th (-5.54%), 8th (-8.29%), 9th (8.18%), 10th (-4.52%), 12th (4.63%), 15th (5.20%), and 23rd (-9.99%).

Of these, three trading days saw daily volatility of 8% or more.

In particular, the market showed extreme movements on the 8th and 9th, swinging between an 8% decline and an 8% gain.

Yesterday, a sell-side sidecar was triggered in the KOSPI market, continuing to set a new annual record.

In the first half of this year alone, the combined number of buy and sell sidecars triggered in the KOSPI has reached 27, surpassing the 26 recorded in 2008 during the global financial crisis.

In the KOSPI market, a circuit breaker was also triggered yesterday following the sell-side sidecar, halting trading for 20 minutes during the session.

This was the fourth circuit breaker triggered this year alone, meaning nearly half of the 10 times it has been triggered in history occurred in the first half of this year.

While the previous annual record was twice, recorded during the 2000 "dot-com bubble" and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic respectively, that figure has already been far exceeded.

The KOSPI 200 Volatility Index (VKOSPI), often referred to as the "fear index" of the Korean market, hit 97.78 at one point today, the highest level since the Korea Exchange began officially publishing the index in April 2009.

Similar to the KOSPI index, the two heavyweights of the domestic stock market, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, also saw significant fluctuations today.

Samsung Electronics showed high volatility, with a daily low of 314,000 won (1.29%) and a high of 341,000 won (10.0%).

SK Hynix also fluctuated during the day, reaching a high of 270,300 won (5.79%) and a low of 245,300 won (-3.99%).

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix closed at 340,500 won (+9.84%) and 258,000 won (+0.98%), respectively.

These two stocks account for an overwhelming 55% of the total market capitalization in the KOSPI market.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.