South Korean shares fell more than 8% on Friday, November 6, taking the KOSPI below 5,000 for the first time in nine months and leading the Korea Exchange to halt trading for 20 minutes.
The index was at 4,923.47, down 8.55%, when the Korea Exchange activated the circuit breaker at 9:03 a.m. local time. The halt came after U.S. technology shares sold off sharply. Investors were concerned that a sweeping Democratic victory in the U.S. midterm elections could lead to policies that slow the growth of artificial-intelligence data centers.
That possibility unsettled semiconductor stocks. Those stocks helped drive heavy selling in Seoul. The KOSPI had already fallen 5.28% in the previous session.
The exchange halted trading because the index's decline exceeded 8% for a sustained period. It did not halt trading simply because the index fell below 5,000. The KOSPI later rose above 5,000.
It ended the day at 5,101, down 5.26% from Thursday's close. The plunge showed how quickly worries about U.S. technology spending and chip demand can affect South Korea's market.