South korea: South Korea's bourse operator activated a sell-side sidecar for the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) on Wednesday following a sharp decline in the index.

According to Yonhap News Agency, program trading for the KOSPI was suspended for five minutes at around 1:31 p.m., as announced by the Korea Exchange (KRX). This move was in response to heavy selling pressure on the KOSPI, driven by investors offloading technology and other large-cap stocks while reassessing the future of artificial intelligence (AI) trade.

The market saw significant selling activity, with foreigners and individual investors selling a combined total of 784 billion won (US$519 million) worth of stocks by 1:40 p.m. In contrast, institutional buying only amounted to 767.9 billion won. The KOSPI, which opened 2.7 percent lower, fell to a session low of 7,222.60.