The trading day in Korea Standard Time
Korea Standard Time is UTC+9 and does not observe daylight saving, so the gap to New York and London shifts twice a year while Seoul stays put. Continuous trading on the Korea Exchange runs 09:00–15:30 KST. Orders are collected from 08:30 for the opening auction and from 15:20 for the closing auction, and each is matched at a single price. After the close there are additional off-hours sessions at the closing price and in a later single-price window.
One price band a day: plus or minus 30%
A KOSPI or KOSDAQ stock may move at most 30% above or below the previous close in a single session, so a limit-up or limit-down freezes the price for the rest of the day. Newly listed IPOs are the exception: on their first day they may trade between 60% and 400% of the offer price. See the price limit and listing-day range.
Tick sizes step up with price
The minimum price increment depends on the share price — one won for cheap stocks, widening in steps to 1,000 won for the most expensive. That matters when you place a limit order: a price that is not on the grid is rejected or rounded. The steps are listed under tick size.
Settlement is T+2
A trade settles on the second business day after execution. Anything that depends on being on the shareholder register — dividends, rights and bonus issues, voting — therefore requires buying at least two business days before the record date. The same rule is why refunds from an IPO subscription land two business days after the book closes.
Automatic pauses: volatility interruption and circuit breaker
If a single stock jumps or drops sharply against its recent price, a volatility interruption switches it to a two-minute single-price auction before continuous trading resumes. When the whole index falls 8%, 15% or 20%, a market-wide circuit breaker halts every stock for 20 minutes, twice, and then ends the session. A separate mechanism, the sidecar, pauses program trading when the futures market moves sharply.
Two venues since 2025
Korean shares no longer trade only on the Korea Exchange. Nextrade, an alternative trading system, opened in 2025 and runs longer hours on a subset of stocks, so a quote you see outside KRX hours may come from there. Reference prices, disclosures and the official close still come from the Korea Exchange.
Holidays close the market completely
Korean markets close on public holidays, and the Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays can close them for several consecutive days on dates that move each year. There is also no half-day trading for most holidays — the market is either open normally or shut. The dates are on our market calendar, which also carries index option expiry days and IPO dates.
Access for non-residents
Foreign investors trade through a Korean brokerage account, usually opened with a standing proxy or custodian bank. The separate foreign investor registration certificate that used to be required was abolished at the end of 2023; registration now runs on a legal entity identifier for institutions or a passport number for individuals, and brokers handle it as part of account opening. Short selling rules have changed repeatedly in recent years, so check the current status rather than an old summary. Disclosure duties — the 5% stake rule in particular — apply to foreign holders on the same terms as domestic ones.
This is an explanation of rules and procedure, not investment advice. Rules reflect September 2026 and can change; check the filing and your broker before acting. Corrections: contact us.