SEOUL, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- South Korean stocks trimmed early losses Friday after a bout of panic selling that triggered a sidecar.
The benchmark KOSPI declined 74.43 points, or 1.44 percent, to close at 5,089.14, while the smaller KOSDAQ slipped 27.64 points, or 2.49 percent, to finish at 1,080.77.
The KOSPI opened 150.42 points lower and dived below the psychological mark of 5,000 points early in the session to an intraday low of 4,899.30.
The extreme volatility activated a sell-side sidecar as the KOSPI 200 futures dropped over 5 percent.
The sidecar refers to a temporary halt of program trading orders for five minutes that is triggered when the KOSPI 200 futures rise or fall by more than 5 percent.
Foreign investors led the sell-off in the KOSPI, while retail investors prevented the deeper rout through a dip-buying in both the KOSPI and the KOSDAQ.
The market's fall was driven by growing concerns that excessive capital spending on artificial intelligence (AI) might not yield immediate profits, weighing on the country's semiconductor giants.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics and memory chip giant SK Hynix ended 0.44 percent and 0.36 percent lower each after retreating as much as 4.6 percent and 5.6 percent respectively during early trading.
The country's top automaker Hyundai Motor tumbled 4.30 percent, and the largest battery maker LG Energy Solution decreased 2.53 percent.
The No. 1 biopharmaceutical contract manufacturer Samsung Biologics fell 1.88 percent, and the leading aerospace and defense company Hanwha Aerospace dipped 3.75 percent.
The biggest shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy Industries went down 2.00 percent, and the energy infrastructure leader Doosan Enerbility was down 1.77 percent. ■
