[Anchor]

Starting today (September 14), you can buy and sell stocks in real time until 8 PM, even after leaving work. Following alternative trading systems, the Korea Exchange has now launched an after-hours market.

Reporter Park Ha-jeong explains how this differs from the previous system.

[Reporter]

The Korea Exchange operates its after-hours market, an extended trading session, from 4 PM to 8 PM starting today.

Previously, real-time trading of stocks listed on the Kospi and Kosdaq markets through the Korea Exchange was only possible until 3:20 PM.

Afterward, trading was only available until 4 PM using the closing price determined at 3:30 PM. Until 6 PM, only the after-hours single-price trading method was allowed, where orders were collected at 10-minute intervals and executed all at once.

The price fluctuation limit was also restricted to 10%.

However, starting today, trading hours are extended by two hours, and real-time trading, similar to daytime trading, becomes possible.

While certain order types such as market orders remain restricted, the price fluctuation limit is the same at plus or minus 30%, and the circuit breaker and volatility interruption systems will operate identically when volatility increases.

Previously, the alternative trading system Nextrade served as an after-hours market from 3:30 PM to 8 PM, but trading was limited to around 600 stocks, consisting of Kospi 200 and Kosdaq 150 companies plus a few additional ones.

More than 2,700 stocks are listed on the market operated by the Korea Exchange, and the exchange announced that over 95% of them will be available for trading starting today.

However, to curb volatility, products such as ETFs and ETNs will be excluded, along with investment-warning stocks, ultra-low liquidity stocks, and administrative issues.

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

[Interview / Song Ki-myung / Head of Stock Market Division, Korea Exchange: For foreign investors, an environment will be established where they can invest in the Korean stock market without being constrained by time differences, so we expect accessibility to our domestic market to be greatly enhanced.]

The exchange also plans to review the introduction of a pre-market session in the morning hours before the regular market opens.

(Video Editing: Park Choon-bae)