South Korea’s Kospi has moved into a calmer phase after financial authorities tightened rules on single-stock leveraged products tied to large-cap companies including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Kospi volatility and the VKOSPI (Kospi 200 volatility index) declined sharply, with the gauge closing at 50.08 on Aug. 28 after reaching 97.99 intraday in late June and 86.18 on July 30. Market safeguards were also activated less frequently: sidecars (temporary trading curbs) were triggered five times through Aug. 28, versus 15 times in July and 10 in June, while circuit breakers were not activated in August after four activations in July. However, average daily trading volume, trading value and turnover all fell to their lowest levels this year. Brokerages say the Kospi may remain range-bound around 7,000 because retail losses have tied up funds, new inflows have slowed and corporate earnings growth is expected to weaken next year. The index briefly reached 7,216 intraday on Aug. 18 but failed to hold above 7,000 after falling from 9,385 in June to 5,262 at the end of July.