Seoul: South Korean stocks kicked off sharply higher Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump temporarily paused reciprocal tariffs on South Korea and other trading partners, except China. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rallied 118.11 points, or 5.15 percent, to 2,411.81 in the first 15 minutes of trading, sharply rebounding from the 17-month low the previous day.

According to Yonhap News Agency, with the steep gain, the bourse operator issued a sidecar order at 9:06 a.m., halting program purchasing for five minutes, after the KOSPI 200 futures soared 5 percent for more than one minute. Overnight, Wall Street posted one of the best days since the global financial crisis in 2008, with the S and P 500 surging 9.5 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average soaring 7.87 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite skyrocketing 12.16 percent.

The rally came after Trump said he lowered new tariffs on South Korea and other trading partners to 10 percent in what he calls a pause that will last for 90 days, considering they have reached out to U.S. trade officials for negotiations and have not retaliated against the reciprocal tariffs. Meanwhile, Trump increased duties on China to 125 percent following Beijing's announcement of a plan to raise tariffs on U.S. goods to 84 percent in a retaliatory move.

In Seoul, market bellwether Samsung Electronics rose 5.66 percent, while its chipmaking rival SK hynix shot up 12.55 percent. Leading battery maker LG Energy Solution gained 5.57 percent, and top automaker Hyundai Motor advanced 7.13 percent. Major shipbuilders HD Hyundai Heavy and Hanwha Ocean climbed 7.16 percent and 6.27 percent, respectively. Top container shipper HMM increased 6.33 percent, and KB Financial went up 5.08 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,457 won against the U.S. dollar at 9:15 a.m., up 27.1 won from the previous session.