Photo : YONHAP News
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index(KOSPI) tumbled more than five percent on Friday.
The KOSPI ended the session at eight-thousand-160-point-59, down 478-point-82 points, or five-point-54 percent, from the previous day.
The index opened at eight-thousand-323-point-20, down 316-point-21 points, or three-point-66 percent, from the prior close, and extended its losses throughout the day.
At one point, it fell to eight-thousand-38-point-one, briefly threatening to break below the eight thousand mark.
The steep decline prompted the activation of a sidecar early in the session, temporarily suspending program sell orders. Losses were later trimmed somewhat as bargain-hunting buying emerged.
The tech-heavy KOSDAQ also closed sharply lower, shedding 47-point-29 points, or four-point-five percent, to finish at one-thousand-two-point-44.