Program sell orders on the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index(KOSPI) market were briefly halted on Wednesday morning after the futures index plunged.

The Korea Exchange said it had activated its sidecar mechanism for five minutes starting at 9:46 a.m. after the KOSPI 200 Futures Index fell five-point-two percent, or 30-point-35 points, from the previous trading day to 552-point-80.

By 10:34 a.m., the KOSPI was trading at three-thousand-870-point-96, down more than 250 points, or six-point-eight percent, from the previous session's close. The index had rebounded slightly to trade at three-thousand-953-point-47, down four-point-08 percent, as of 12 p.m. the same day.

A sidecar is activated when KOSPI 200 futures rise or fall by at least five percent from the previous session’s close and hold that move for one minute.

This marks the first time a sell-sidecar has been activated on the KOSPI since April 7.

On the Seoul foreign exchange market, the Korean won was trading at one-thousand-446 won per U.S. dollar as of 9:40 a.m., its lowest level in about seven months.