Kospi Ends Up 0.31% at 7,516.04, Reclaims 7,500 After Sell Sidecar

South Korea’s Kospi reclaimed the 7,500 mark on May 18, rebounding sharply after an early plunge that was severe enough to trigger a temporary halt on program sell orders, known as a sell sidecar. Easing concerns over a strike at Samsung Electronics helped fuel the turnaround.

The Kospi closed up 22.86 points, or 0.31%, at 7,516.04.

Earlier in the session, the index fell as much as 4.68% to 7,142.71. A sell sidecar was triggered at about 9:19 a.m. after Kospi 200 futures dropped more than 5% for more than five minutes. It was the second consecutive trading day such a measure was activated, after May 15.

Sentiment turned after President Lee Jae-myung commented on the Samsung Electronics union. At about 9:30 a.m., reports said Lee stated that “management rights at companies should be respected as much as labor rights.”

At about 11:13 a.m., reports said a court had curbed the Samsung Electronics union’s strike action. The 31st Civil Division of the Suwon District Court partially granted Samsung Electronics’ request for an injunction to ban the strike.

The court said the union “bears the obligation to maintain and operate these facilities during labor action with the same level of staffing, operating hours, scale of operations and duty of care as on normal weekdays, weekends or holidays before the labor action.”

Samsung Electronics, which had fallen as much as 3.14% early in the session, reversed course to close up 3.88%.

SK Hynix rose 1.15%.

Han Gyeong-u, Hankyung.com reporter case@hankyung.com