Seoul, July 7 (IANS) South Korea’s bourse operator on Tuesday activated a sell-side sidecar for the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) after the index tumbled sharply.

Program trading for the KOSPI was suspended for five minutes at around 10:23 am, according to the Korea Exchange (KRX), reports Yonhap News Agency.

The KOSPI came under heavy selling pressure as investors locked in profits after Samsung Electronics Co. released its preliminary second-quarter earnings estimate.

Local technology stocks plunged on profit-taking after the chipmaker estimated its operating profit for the April-June period at 89.4 trillion won (US$58.4 billion), beating market forecasts. The estimate exceeded the average market forecast by 6.2 percent, according to Yonhap Infomax.

The earnings outlook reflects provisions for employee bonuses. Excluding those provisions, quarterly operating profit is estimated to have reached around 100 trillion won.

After opening down 1.6 percent at 7,920.48, the KOSPI fell as low as 7,568.59 during the session.

The local market bucked overnight gains on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.29 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 1.12 percent.

Institutions and foreigners sold a net 97.3 billion won (US$64 million) and 1.74 trillion won, respectively, while individuals bought a net 1.81 trillion won.

Market bellwether Samsung Electronics fell 7.4 percent, while chip giant SK hynix declined 6.4 percent ahead of its planned $29 billion U.S. listing later this week.

Top carmaker Hyundai Motor dropped 5.9 percent, and defense company Hanwha Aerospace shed 4 percent.

Hanwha Ocean plunged 23 percent after a South Korean consortium that includes the shipbuilder failed to win Canada’s multibillion-dollar submarine procurement project.

Among gainers, cosmetics maker Amorepacific rose 2.9 percent, and leading refiner SK Innovation climbed 3.9 percent.

The Korean won was trading at 1,527.40 won per U.S. dollar as of 11:20 a.m., up 2.6 won from the previous session.

–IANS

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