South Korea's KOSPI surged, prompting the Korea Exchange to activate its buy-side Sidecar program-trading pause for KOSPI-listed stocks at 10:51 a.m. local time; program trading was halted for five minutes. After a gap up, the index was up 247.81 points (+4.46%) at 5,800.55 by 11:02 a.m.; it had plunged nearly 4% in the prior session amid investor doubts that heavy AI infrastructure investment will deliver corresponding profits.

2026-10-21

South Korea's KOSPI surged, prompting the Korea Exchange to activate its buy-side Sidecar program-trading pause for KOSPI-listed stocks at 10:51 a.m. local time; program trading was halted for five minutes. After a gap up, the index was up 247.81 points (+4.46%) at 5,800.55 by 11:02 a.m.; it had plunged nearly 4% in the prior session amid investor doubts that heavy AI infrastructure investment will deliver corresponding profits.