Korea Exchange Launches After-Hours Trading for About 2,400 Kospi and Kosdaq Stocks
The Korea Exchange began after-hours trading on September 14, 2026, extending the session to 8 p. m. for about 2,400 Kospi and Kosdaq stocks, with short selling allowed and limit orders only. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix moved little in the first evening session. Pre-market trading was postponed to 2027, and 27 foreign asset managers had completed system integration by the end of March 2026.
On September 14, 2026, the Korea Exchange officially launched after-hours trading. The regular trading session remains 9 a. m. to 3:30 p. , but under the new system investors can continue trading until 8 p. after the normal close. The after-hours session runs from 4 p. to 8 p. to 6 p. A 30-minute after-hours fixed-price trading session follows the regular close, and the fixed-price trading previously conducted from 4 p. has been abolished. South Korea thus becomes the first major Asia-Pacific economy to offer such broad evening trading hours.
Trading has shifted from the previous 10-minute single-price method to real-time execution through matching of buy and sell quotes.
After-hours trading covers about 2,400 stocks on the Kospi main board and Kosdaq, including short selling, and encompasses nearly all stocks not traded in the regular market that day, as well as some stocks subject to market management such as investment-warning and administrative issues and ultra-low-liquidity stocks. Only limit orders are permitted; market orders are not allowed. Price limits are the same as in the regular market, at plus or minus 30% of the previous day's closing price, and volatility mitigation mechanisms are activated.
Pre-market trading had been scheduled to launch on the same day, but the Korea Exchange postponed it to the end of 2027 after the securities industry cited the burden of IT system development and staffing. It plans to introduce pre-market trading in 2027 and ultimately move toward 24-hour continuous trading. The exchange is joining the after-work stock trading market led by the alternative exchange Nextrade. Nextrade launched pre-market and after-hours trading in Korean stocks in March 2025, covering about 600 stocks, and its year-and-a-half of operation showed that retail investors contributed more than 80% of trading volume in its pre-market and after-hours sessions. The Korea Exchange said that in the first week of the pilot it would focus on liquidity indicators including the share of evening-session turnover, market-maker quote depth and the rate of international brokerage participation. As of the end of March 2026, 27 European and US asset managers had completed system integration, of which 11 explicitly said they would start after-hours strategy trading.
At the opening of the first evening session, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix shares changed little from that day's closing prices. Asian stock markets fell broadly on September 14, with technology shares under pressure. The MSCI Asia-Pacific stock index fell 0.9%, the Kospi fell 3%, and Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix shares fell more than 3.5%. The Nikkei 225 fell 1% and SoftBank Group shares fell 13%. Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1.2%, and S&P 500 contracts fell 0.4%.
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