KOSPI · March 23, 2026

The day the Strait became the threat

-6.49%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

A war that erased a fifth in a month

near the end of it · 2026-02-26 → 2026-03-31, -19.89% over the whole period

What happened that day?

The KOSPI fell 6.49% to close at 5,405.75
The war was entering its fourth week, and on this day the Strait of Hormuz was the issue
Washington threatened to destroy Iran's power plants unless the Strait was fully reopened; Tehran answered by threatening Gulf energy and desalination sites
Iran did block the Strait in late March and then claimed sovereignty over it — recorded as the largest supply disruption the global oil market has seen
Korea is exposed for one reason. It buys nearly all the oil it burns, and much of it comes through that channel
Japan's market fell the same day. All of Asia sits on the same sea lane
The bottom of this episode came eight days later, on 31 March

Sources

Every figure on this page is recomputed from the original daily closing prices and checked against them at build time. The account of what happened is put together from the public record; where a specific source was consulted it is listed above.