Foreign investors' sell-off pushes South Korea's stock market below the 7,000-point mark, with frequent sharp swings triggering the "sidecar" mechanism a total of 35 times this year.

South Korean media reported that the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell below the 7,000-point threshold during intraday trading, triggering the circuit breaker mechanism for the seventh time this year. Driven by renewed geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and Iran, foreign and institutional investors offloaded large volumes of stocks, pushing the index sharply lower. This marks KOSPI’s first intraday drop below 7,000 points in nearly two months, since May 4. Data shows foreign and institutional investors led the sell-off: foreign investors net sold 2.23 trillion won, institutional investors net sold around 570 billion won, while individual investors net bought nearly 2.7 trillion won. Among institutional investors, the National Pension Service net bought around 220 billion won. South Korean stocks have seen extreme volatility recently, swinging between sharp rallies and plunges. During today’s morning trading session, sellers triggered the sidecar mechanism (a temporary halt for program trading) for the 18th time this year; the circuit breaker was activated in the afternoon. Year-to-date, South Korean stocks have recorded 17 buyer-triggered sidecar operations and 18 seller-triggered ones, totaling 35.