Asia Closes Deep in the Red: KOSPI Falls 6.02% and Holds 5,000, Nikkei Drops 6.0%, Seoul Waives Margin Collateral Rule for Three Months
Asian stock markets closed deep in the red on Friday, November 6, as the selloff that gave U.S. stocks their worst day in more than a year on November 5 finished its pass through the region. South Korea's KOSPI, which had triggered a first-level circuit breaker in the morning, recovered part of its losses in the afternoon and closed just above the 5,000 mark, while Japan's Nikkei posted its biggest percentage drop since April 2025 and Taiwan's benchmark closed below 40,000 after a record intraday point plunge.
According to the Korea Exchange (KRX), the KOSPI closed at 5,059.69, down 324.11 points, or 6.02 percent, from the previous session, a two-day decline of 10.98 percent from its November 4 close of 5,683.80. The index opened at 5,263.26, fell to an intraday low of 4,911.28 — below 5,000 for the first time since February 6 — and triggered a first-stage circuit breaker at 9:03:33 a.m., halting trading for 20 minutes; it was the 11th such activation this year and the 17th in history. Foreign investors sold a net 2.7691 trillion won, while institutions bought a net 1.7042 trillion won and individuals a net 601 billion won. Samsung Electronics closed down 6.35 percent at 188,700 won and SK Hynix fell 10.44 percent to 1,132,000 won. The KOSDAQ closed at 644.27, down 5.03 percent.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei Stock Average closed 6.0 percent lower at 57,434.77, its biggest percentage drop since April 2025, according to The Wall Street Journal. Chip-related stocks led the decline, with Kioxia Holdings shedding 8.7 percent and SoftBank Group losing 11 percent, while the yield on the 10-year Japanese government bond fell 12 basis points to 2.635 percent as investors sought the safety of sovereign bonds.
In Taipei, Taiwan's benchmark TAIEX closed at 39,701.64, down 1,873.08 points, or 4.51 percent, according to the Central News Agency. The index had plunged 3,737.67 points shortly after the open to an intraday low of 37,837.05, a fall of 8.99 percent and the largest intraday point drop in its history, before recovering part of the loss. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), which had hit its daily limit down at the open, closed down 4.69 percent, and turnover reached 1.25 trillion New Taiwan dollars.
South Korea's government moved during the session to curb forced selling. At an emergency market meeting on November 6 chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il, with the Financial Services Commission, the Financial Supervisory Service and the Bank of Korea taking part, authorities decided that brokerages will be exempt for three months, starting November 9, from the obligation to maintain a 140 percent collateral ratio on margin loans. The finance minister said the measure would help prevent excessive forced selling and further destabilizing the market, according to a statement from his office reported by Dow Jones Newswires. The exemption is intended to break the chain in which falling prices trigger forced liquidation of shares bought on credit, which in turn pushes prices down further.
The Asian rout followed the U.S. close on November 5, when the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.52 percent and confirmed a correction, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index slumped 12.25 percent, and all three major U.S. indexes posted their worst day since April 2025, amid uncertainty over super intelligence (SI) and data centre policies after the Democratic Party's sweep of Congress in the midterm elections. U.S. market moves later on Friday will be the next test of whether the selloff stabilizes.
(Source: Korea Exchange)
Source: Korea Exchange
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：首尔汝矣岛金融区（资料图），韩国交易所（KRX）首尔中心所在地。照片：S h y numis，CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Yeouido, the finance district of Seoul and home to the Korea Exchange (KRX) Seoul center (file photo). Photo: S h y numis, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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- 2026-11-05Asia Closes Deep in the Red: KOSPI Falls 6.02% and Holds 5,000, Nikkei Drops 6.0%, Seoul Waives Margin Collateral Rule for Three MonthsThis story
