South Korean Regulators Plan Emergency Meeting After Market Selloff

South Korean financial regulators plan an emergency meeting to discuss the stock market after sharp losses hit the country's main equity indexes.

The KOSPI fell 9% intraday, with Samsung Electronics shares down more than 11%. The benchmark's decline had earlier reached 7%, when SK Hynix shares were down 10%. Separately, the KOSDAQ plunged enough to trigger a circuit breaker, halting trading for 20 minutes. The circuit-breaker halt applied to KOSDAQ trading; the KOSPI's reported move was an intraday decline.

Regulators also signaled a firm response to market-disturbing activity and said they were ready to activate emergency plans if needed. The planned meeting will address stock-market conditions. The KOSPI and KOSDAQ figures refer to separate indexes, and only the KOSDAQ trading session was halted by a circuit breaker. The meeting announcement came amid pressure across both markets.