South Korea’s main stock market index, the KOSPI, experienced a sharp fall in its last trading session, declining by over 12%. This drop is a much larger move than we’ve seen recently, and it shows how unstable the market has become due to the conflict in Iran.
Worst Stock Market Crash Since 2008
As of Wednesday, the KOSPI index has fallen by over 12%. It dropped another 7% on the previous trading day, resulting in its worst performance since 2008.
Korea’s stock market temporarily paused trading today after both the Kosdaq and KOSPI indexes fell enough to activate emergency measures. Trading was halted for 20 minutes due to the sharp declines.
Lorraine Tan, Morningstar’s director of equity research for Asia, shared her thoughts on the issue in a CNBC report, stating:
The recent decrease in the KOSPI index is largely due to the fact that a few specific companies have a disproportionately large influence on the Korean stock market. While some investors are taking profits after recent gains, and overall market risk is increasing, there’s also growing worry that the increasing cost of electricity could slow down the building of new AI data centers.
Experts also note that South Korea’s economy is heavily affected by oil prices, which makes it particularly susceptible to problems caused by the conflict in the Middle East.
Global Tensions in Markets
Stock markets in Japan are also struggling. The Nikkei, Japan’s main market index, has fallen more than 5% in the last two days, while the US stock market has seen a partial recovery after recent comments from involved parties.
The cryptocurrency market hasn’t seen much movement today. Bitcoin has increased slightly, up 0.6% over the last 24 hours, but most other coins are fluctuating between a 1% decrease and a 1% increase. The overall market value currently stands around $2.3 trillion, which is a small decrease of 0.1% from yesterday, according to CoinMarketCap.
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2026-03-04 10:46