[DigitalToday reporter Sang-yeop Oh] South Korea's KOSPI halted a steep slide that had run for seven straight sessions and rebounded for the first time in 8 sessions. The Kosdaq also surged more than 4 percent, triggering an intraday buy-sidecar.

On Oct. 16, the KOSPI ended up 113.83 points, or 2.05 percent, at 5,668.05 from the previous session. It marked the first higher close in 8 sessions. The index opened at 5,653.99, up 99.77 points, or 1.80 percent, from the previous close of 5,554.22. It rose as high as the 5,800 level during the session but later trimmed gains.

Buying interest is seen as having flowed in on perceptions the drop had been excessive, after the KOSPI fell 7.57 percent a day earlier and circuit breakers were triggered intraday on both the KOSPI and Kosdaq.

In trading flows, foreigners were net buyers of 341.3 billion won, leading the rebound. Retail investors and institutions were net sellers of 484.7 billion won and 683.5 billion won, respectively.

Most heavyweight stocks also rebounded. Samsung Electronics closed up 2.62 percent at 215,500 won, and SK Hynix rose 0.79 percent to 1,272,000 won.

Elsewhere, SK Square rose 2.48 percent, Samsung Electro-Mechanics gained 2.15 percent, Hyundai Motor advanced 5.58 percent, Samsung Biologics climbed 4.09 percent, Samsung Life rose 4.61 percent, LG Energy Solution added 0.12 percent and KB Financial Group gained 2.11 percent.

The Kosdaq closed up 33.96 points, or 4.46 percent, at 794.78. It opened at 772.17 and rose as high as 807.54 during the session, briefly recovering the 800 level.

With the sharp rise, the Kosdaq market triggered a buy-sidecar at around 12:55 p.m., suspending the effectiveness of program buy orders for five minutes. It came a day after a sell-sidecar and a circuit breaker were triggered at the same time, effectively putting the opposite volatility curb into operation.

The won-dollar exchange rate was 1,332.50 won, down 10 won from the previous session.

Even with the rebound, it was not enough to reverse recent losses. The KOSPI is down more than 20 percent over a short period after falling for seven straight sessions through the previous day. The fact that it recovered the 5,800 level intraday and then gave back more than half of its gains also showed that high volatility and caution in the market persist.

Lee Jae-won (이재원), a researcher at Yuanta Securities, said the core driver of this week's sharp drop in domestic stocks is an imbalance in supply and demand. He said 80 to 90 percent of foreigners' cumulative net selling since the start of the year has been concentrated in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

He added that retail investors, who have been net buyers of more than 100 trillion won since the start of the year, have seen deposit growth stop. He said public pension funds also have limited capacity to defend flows. He said that, with no buying force to absorb foreigners' dumping, a selling vicious cycle similar to the leveraged liquidation at the end of July is being repeated.