Seoul shares up over 3% late Tuesday morning on chip rebound

Korean stocks were trading more than 3 percent higher late Tuesday morning, recovering from the previous session's over 8 percent plunge, as major semiconductor shares bounced back amid a ceasefire between Israel and Iran and investors' confidence in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) had added 260.6 points, or 3.48 percent, to 7,745.01 as of 11:20 a.m., after rising as high as 7,847.74.

With the sharp rise, the Korea Exchange had activated a buy-side sidecar for the KOSPI at around 9:12 a.m., halting program trading for five minutes.

Program trading on the KOSDAQ was also suspended for five minutes from 9:28 a.m. after the bourse issued a buy-side sidecar for the secondary index.

The rebound came as investors moved to purchase tech shares after the KOSPI slid more than 8 percent Monday on woes over AI profitability and a possible rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve, after the release of hotter-than-expected U.S. jobs data for May.

Overnight, major U.S. indexes closed mixed as investors digested news that Israel and Iran ha