The Korea Exchange suspended trading on the KOSPI market for 20 minutes at 12:10:12 p.m. after the benchmark remained more than 8 percent below the previous session's close for one minute.
The KOSPI was down 731.97 points, or 8.19 percent, at 8,198.33 when the circuit breaker was triggered.
The sell-side circuit breaker came about an hour after a sell-side sidecar was activated at 11:12:12 a.m., after the benchmark KOSPI 200 futures contract fell 5 percent from the previous close and stayed there for one minute, automatically suspending program sell orders for five minutes.
The KOSPI 200 futures contract was down 72.88 points, or 5.00 percent, at 1,382.00 when the sidecar was triggered.
It marked the second time both a sell-side sidecar and a circuit breaker had been activated on the KOSPI in the same session, just three trading days after Tuesday's 9.99 percent plunge.
As of 1:20 p.m., the KOSPI was down 7.3 percent at 8,282.85, while the junior KOSDAQ fell 4.4 percent to 849.01.
Decliners outnumbered gainers 844 to 62 on the main board and 1,564 to 141 on the KOSDAQ.
Foreign investors dumped a net 4.7 trillion won worth of KOSPI shares, while local institutions sold a net 698.8 billion won. Retail investors scooped up a net 5.3 trillion won worth of shares.
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