South Korean stocks staged a sharp rebound in early trading Thursday, triggering buy-side sidecars on both the main and secondary bourses.
The benchmark Kospi opened 3.09 percent higher at 5,250.92, compared with the previous session, according to the Korea Exchange. The index swiftly extended gains after the opening bell, surging 10.82 percent to 5,644.91 as of 9:40 a.m. Earlier, it even touched an intraday high of 5,715.3.
Amid the steep early rally, buy-side sidecars were activated on both the Kospi and the Kosdaq at 9:06 a.m.
Market heavyweights that had tumbled more than 10 percent the previous day led the rebound. Shares of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix jumped 13.88 percent and 14.61 percent, respectively, while Hyundai Motor advanced 13.17 percent. Most top-cap stocks extended gains in early trade.
The sharp opening rally was attributed to overnight gains on Wall Street, where US equities closed higher on reports of back-channel contacts between Washington and Tehran. Large-cap tech stocks led the advance, with Tesla and Amazon each rising 3.44 percent and 3.95 percent.
Foreign investors led the Kospi rally, snapping up a net 744.1 billion won ($509 million) worth of shares in early trade. Retail investors also net bought 481.2 billion won, while institutional investors were the only net sellers, offloading 1.15 trillion won on the bourses.
The tech-heavy Kosdaq also opened 4.64 percent higher at 1,023.84. After jumping to as high as 1,091.98, it was up 10.35 percent at 1,079.71 as of 9:40 a.m.
silverstar@heraldcorp.com
