South Korean stocks started sharply higher Tuesday, a day after a steep decline, as US President Donald Trump hinted the US-Iran war "is very complete." The Korean won also sharply gained ground against the greenback.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 248.63 points, or 4.73 percent, to 5,500.5 as of 9:15 a.m.
Program trading of the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index was suspended for five minutes at 9:06 a.m. A sidecar is triggered by the Korea Exchange when the KOSPI 200 Futures index moves 5 percent or more for at least one minute.
Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.5 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.38 percent, and the S&P 500 increased 0.83 percent. The KOSPI fell 5.96 percent Monday.
During an interview with CBS News, Trump said the war with Iran is very complete, which led to a sharp decline in global crude prices.
In the previous session, the KRX activated a circuit breaker on the main bourse, suspending trading for 20 minutes following extreme market volatility.
It marked the first time a circuit breaker had been activated twice in a single month since March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the market. The previous one was issued Wednesday last week when the KOSPI sank 12.06 percent, the steepest one-day decline since Sept. 12, 2001.
Top tech giant Samsung Electronics shot up 7.61 percent, and SK hynix climbed 8.85 percent.
Leading battery maker LG Energy Solution gained 2.36 percent, and Samsung SDI jumped 3.73 percent.
Carmakers opened higher as well, with Hyundai Motor rising 4.14 percent and Kia rising 3.19 percent.
Korean Air shot up 5.36 percent, and Asiana Airlines added 3.75 percent.
The Korean won was trading at 1,471.3 won against the US dollar, up 24.2 won from the previous session.
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