SEOUL, July 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's bourse operator on Tuesday activated a circuit breaker for the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) on a sell-off in tech shares.

Trading of KOSPI-listed shares was halted for 20 minutes.

The Korea Exchange (KRX) triggered the marketwide circuit breaker at around 10:14 a.m. after the KOSPI plunged more than 8 percent from the previous session's close.

The benchmark index came under heavy selling pressure as investors sold off semiconductor shares on skepticism about tech giants' heavy spending on artificial intelligence (AI).

It marked the seventh time this year that the KRX has activated a circuit breaker.

brk@yna.co.kr

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