KOSPI Triggers 7th Circuit Breaker of 2026 on July 13 as Foreign Investors Drive 8% Plunge

According to the Korea Exchange, on July 13, KOSPI triggered its seventh circuit breaker in 2026 as concurrent selling by foreign and institutional investors drove an intraday decline of over 8%, halting program trading. The decline was led by semiconductor heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

Since the circuit breaker system's introduction in 2000, KOSPI has triggered the mechanism only 13 times in total. Seven of these instances have occurred in 2026, representing over half of all historical occurrences. Five of the seven 2026 activations took place after late May, when single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for Samsung and SK Hynix were listed.