The Korean Stock Exchange halted trading after the escalating Middle East conflict triggered a steep sell-off on Wednesday.
South Korea’s Kospi and Kosdaq each tumbled more than 10% during morning trading in Seoul, activating a circuit breaker and recording their worst session since August 2024, Channel News Asia reported. Japan’s Nikkei and Topix fell nearly 4%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped about 3%, and China’s Shanghai Composite slid roughly 1.3%, according to Google Finance.
“Investors sold down risk assets, and in particular, the Nikkei as well as the Kospi, which outperform other major indexes, have become a target of the heavier selloff as they try to book profits,” Kazuaki Shimada, chief strategist at IwaiCosmo Securities, told CNA. Bianco Research CEO Jim Bianco noted South Korea imports 94% of its oil, with 75% from the Middle East, saying that helps explain the market panic. Thailand’s stock exchange plunged 7.8% on the same day.
The Trump administration said attacks on Iran are intensifying, with the US reportedly targeting a meeting of Iran’s top leaders while they discussed succession, Fox News reported. The Strait of Hormuz was closed after Iranian threats to oil and cargo vessels. Donald Trump said the US Navy would begin escorting tankers through the strait “as soon as possible” and asserted on social media that the US has a “virtually unlimited supply” of weapons and that wars can be “fought forever.”
Crude oil surged as a result: Brent rose about 14% to near $82 per barrel and WTI climbed roughly 12% to about $75 per barrel since airstrikes began on Feb. 28, OilPrice reported.
Crypto researcher SungHoon Lee called the episode a black swan event, saying trading in Korea was halted “because the crash was too fast for the system to handle,” and that roughly $3.2 trillion in global stock market value had vanished over four days. He labeled the shock the worst geopolitical event since the 1973 oil crisis. Crypto markets, which are down about 21% so far this year, reacted less sharply on the day, with total market capitalization off about 0.5% to $2.39 trillion, CoinGecko reported.
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