The Korea Exchange, known as KRX, will launch continuous after-market trading from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Korea Standard Time on September 14, following its September 9 announcement. The four-hour session replaces auction-style trading held every 10 minutes between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., allowing prices to update continuously through real-time order matching. It will cover almost all listed domestic stocks and depositary receipts on the KOSPI and KOSDAQ boards, while ETFs and ETNs will remain excluded. Trading will accept only limit orders, impose a 30% price-movement cap and use time-based volatility interruptions. Thirty-eight brokerages representing 95.2% of current trading volume have joined. The move gives South Korean retail investors a post-work trading window and makes KRX the first major Asian exchange to adopt extended trading hours, while also responding partly to competition from Nextrade, which introduced extended hours in 2025. KRX’s longer-term roadmap calls for 12-hour daily trading initially and a full 24-hour market by December 2027. The evening session will test whether liquidity can remain adequate and whether investors need additional trading time as interest in Korean equities cools. The exchange has also discussed shorter settlement cycles to improve accessibility for foreign investors and address the market’s so-called Korea discount. The session overlaps with European morning hours, allowing Korean and European participants to trade simultaneously. Li Ying-jae, a senior investment manager at Pictet Asset Management in London, said longer trading windows generally give investors more flexibility and make markets more efficient. Edward Kim, Bank of America’s head of Korean equity sales, described the move as another step in the continuing evolution of South Korea’s capital market and its accessibility to global investors.