Employees work at the dealing room of Hana Bank headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the 13th. On this day, the KOSPI plunged more than 6% during intraday trading, falling below the 7,000-point mark for the first time in about two months. As of 12:12 p.m. today, the KOSPI was at 6,978.89, down 497.05 points (6.65%) from the previous trading session. [Photo = Yonhap News]On the 13th, the KOSPI plunged over 8%, dropping below the 7,000 mark and triggering a circuit breaker that temporarily halted trading.

As of 1:51 p.m. today, the KOSPI stood at 6,880.97, down 594.97 points (7.96%). The index opened at 7,412.03, down 63.91 points (0.85%), and after fluctuating, it turned downward and has been expanding its losses.

This marks the first time in about two months that the KOSPI index has fallen below the 7,000-point mark since it first broke through the level on May 6.

The KOSPI fell as much as 8.22% to 6,861.40 at one point, leading to the activation of a circuit breaker at 1:28 p.m.—the 7th time this year—which suspended trading for 20 minutes. This was the 13th time in history, with more than half of all instances occurring this year.

The exchange later announced that the circuit breaker for the KOSPI market would be lifted and trading would resume at 1:48:32 p.m., 20 minutes after the suspension.

Earlier, at 10:34 a.m., a KOSPI sell-side sidecar was also triggered.

Currently, foreign net selling on the KOSPI has grown to 2.2483 trillion won, while institutions are also selling off 572.7 billion won worth of shares. Individuals are net buying 2.7231 trillion won.

The sharp decline of the two semiconductor giants appears to be having a significant impact on the index's drop.

Currently, Samsung Electronics [005930] (-9.21%) has plummeted to the 250,000-won range, and SK Hynix [000660] (-13.35%) has also crashed, breaking through the 2 million-won mark and sliding into the high 1.8 million-won range.

At the same time, the KOSDAQ index is also down 36 points (4.30%) at 801.43, with the 800-point level under threat.