South Korean equities fell sharply late on March 9 after trading resumed following a temporary suspension triggered by market volatility linked to the recent and ongoing US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

The benchmark KOSPI dropped 450.57 points, or 8.07%, to 5,134.3 as of 11:02 a.m. local time, after the Korea Exchange resumed trading following its latest 20-minute halt – a similar effort at calming investor sentiment was used the previous week.

The exchange activated the ‘circuit breaker’ method at 10:31 a.m. after the index plunged 452.8 points, or 8.11%, to 5,132.07 earlier in the day. The mechanism is triggered by Korean authorities when the index remains 8% below the previous session’s level for at least one minute.

The Korea Exchange had also activated a circuit breaker last week when the main index dropped 12.06%, marking the steepest one-day fall since the aftermath of the September 11 attacks over 20-years ago.

Earlier on March 9, the exchange triggered a sell-side sidecar – a process which halts sell orders for five minutes after the KOSPI 200 Futures moved more than 5% for at least one minute.

Investors across Korea and overseas were closely monitoring volatility in global energy markets, with the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude rising above $100 a barrel over the weekend.

As a result, the Korean won was trading at KRW1,496.3 against the dollar, weakening by KRW19.9 from the previous session.