South Korea's benchmark KOSPI and the secondary KOSDAQ both surged over five percent on Tuesday, prompting authorities to activate sidecars to temporarily suspend program trading.

The Korea Exchange said it was halting program trading on the KOSPI for five minutes starting at 9:06 a.m., after the KOSPI 200 Futures index jumped 16-point-75 points, or five-point-06 percent, from the previous day.

This is the first time a buy-side sidecar has been activated on the KOSPI since June 16, 2020. 

The sidecar curb is activated when the prices of the futures index jump five percent or more compared to standard prices and the rise continues for one minute. 

The five-minute halt in trading was also activated on the secondary market after the tech-heavy KOSDAQ 150 futures index and the KOSDAQ 150 index soared seven-point-99 percent and five-point-64 percent, respectively, from the previous day.

This is the first time a sidecar has been activated on the KOSDAQ since November 6 last year.