South Korean stocks opened sharply higher Wednesday on semiconductor gains, prompting the Korea Exchange to trigger a buy-side sidecar that suspended program trading for five minutes.
The benchmark KOSPI rose 402.31 points, or 5.96 percent, to 7,150.26 as of 9:15 a.m. The Korea Exchange activated the buy-side sidecar at 9:06 a.m. after the KOSPI 200 Futures index climbed more than 5 percent, halting program trading for five minutes.
Samsung Electronics gained 5.79 percent and SK hynix advanced 9.15 percent. Hyundai Motor climbed 8.27 percent, Celltrion rose 2.51 percent and Naver added 3.21 percent. The Korean won traded at 1,480.2 won per dollar, up 1.8 won from the previous session.
“We would have to check big tech earnings results and their AI investment plans to see whether this upward momentum will lead to sustained buying,” said Seo Sang-yong, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities. Alphabet Inc. is scheduled to release its second-quarter earnings later Wednesday U.S. time.
