Korean Stock Market Hours: KRX Sessions, Nextrade and Holidays

Trading in Korean stocks now runs 12 hours a day, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Seoul, counting the Korea Exchange (KRX) and the alternative venue Nextrade together. On Sept. 14, 2026, the KRX opened a real-time after-market from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., so most listed stocks, not only those on Nextrade, can now trade into the evening. For foreign investors, that moves more of the Korean trading day into the London morning and the Hong Kong afternoon.

The KRX regular session still runs from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with auctions at the open and the close. Nextrade runs its own pre-market and after-market for about 610 stocks, the Korea Herald reported on Sept. 13, 2026.

The calendar has its own rules. The KRX closes on Korean public holidays and on Dec. 31, and on Nov. 19, 2026, the day of the national college entrance exam, the market opens an hour late.

Here's what you need to know.

What Are the KRX Trading Hours?

The KRX regular session runs from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Seoul, Monday through Friday, for stocks on the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets.

The session is built in three parts. Orders entered from 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. go into an opening auction, where all bids and offers are pooled and matched at a single price. Continuous trading follows until 3:20 p.m., with each order filled as soon as a matching order meets its price.

At 3:20 p.m., the KRX starts taking orders for a closing auction, which sets the official closing price at the 3:30 p.m. close. To prevent unfair trades, the KRX ends each auction at a random moment within 30 seconds of its scheduled end.

In most cases, that closing price becomes the next day's base price, and a stock can rise or fall no more than 30% from it in a single day under KRX rules.

Two short KRX sessions trade only at a fixed price. From 8:30 a.m. to 8:40 a.m., investors can trade at the previous day's closing price. From 3:40 p.m. to 4 p.m., they can trade at that day's close, and orders are filled in the order they arrive.

Simply put, auctions set the first and last prices of the KRX day, orders match one by one in between, and every trade stays within 30% of the previous close.

How Does the KRX After-Market Work?

Since Sept. 14, 2026, the KRX after-market has run from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., with orders matched continuously as soon as a buyer and a seller agree on a price. It replaced an after-hours session that ran from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and matched orders in single-price auctions every 10 minutes, Money Today reported.

The day's price band still applies, so after-market trades must stay within 30% of the previous day's close. In the after-market, the KRX accepts only limit orders and two variants of them, best limit and immediately executable limit orders, and market orders are not allowed, the Financial News reported.

Evening trades also do not change the official close. The KRX defines the closing price as the last price traded in the regular session, so the 3:30 p.m. auction price still counts as the day's close.

Coverage is wide but not complete. The after-market is open to KOSPI and KOSDAQ stocks, including foreign stocks, depositary receipts and real estate investment trusts (REITs), but exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and exchange-traded notes (ETNs) are excluded.

The KRX also leaves out stocks that did not trade in that day's regular session and suspended stocks. Stocks on its administrative issues list, or flagged for investment alerts, investment risk, abnormal volatility or very low liquidity, are excluded as well.

Individuals accounted for 93.0% of after-market trading on the first day, Sept. 14, 2026, foreign investors for 3.9% and institutions for 2.1%, Money Today reported.

Korea Exchange Chairman Jeong Eun-bo had pledged to extend trading hours, saying the exchange would "proactively respond to the transition to a multiple-exchange system and competition for liquidity among global exchanges," as translated by the Korea Herald.

The KRX does not yet run a pre-market of its own. Before the 9 a.m. open, its schedule shows only the opening auction, block trades for large orders and closing-price trading.

It had planned to open a pre-market together with the after-market at the end of June 2026, the Financial News reported. Talks on adding one later were still under way in September 2026, according to Money Today.

When Does Nextrade Trade?

Nextrade began trading listed stocks on March 4, 2025, as an alternative trading system (ATS), a venue where investors can trade the same stocks that are listed on the KRX.

Its pre-market runs from 8 a.m. to 8:50 a.m., and its main market from 9 a.m. to 3:20 p.m., Seoul Economic Daily reported. The main market therefore stops just as the KRX closing auction begins.

Nextrade's website gives its after-market as 3:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., while the Financial News and Seoul Economic Daily reported that trading in it starts at 3:40 p.m.

Nextrade applies the same price bands, market surveillance and clearing and settlement rules as the KRX, according to its website. A stock therefore faces the same 30% daily limit on both venues.

Nextrade allows trading in about 610 stocks, the Korea Herald reported, while 831 stocks were listed on the KOSPI and 1,811 on the KOSDAQ as of Sept. 11, 2026.

The two venues also compete on trading fees: the KRX charges about 0.23 basis points, compared with 0.15 basis points at Nextrade, according to the Korea Herald.

Access to the longer hours depends on your broker, so ask which venues and sessions it sends orders to. If you are still choosing one, our guide on how to buy Korean stocks from abroad explains omnibus accounts and costs.

When Is the Korean Stock Market Closed?

The KRX does not trade on Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays under government rules, election days, Labor Day on May 1 or Dec. 31. When Dec. 31 is a Saturday or a holiday, the closure moves to the closest business day before it.

No settlement takes place on those days either. KRX trades settle two business days after the trade date, known as T+2, so a holiday also delays when cash or shares arrive.

Under those rules, two weekday closures are left in 2026: Christmas Day on Friday, Dec. 25, and the year-end closure on Thursday, Dec. 31. That makes Wednesday, Dec. 30, the last trading day of 2026.

The first session of a new year can start late. For Jan. 2, 2026, the KRX set the regular session to open at 10 a.m. because of the market's opening ceremony, with closing times unchanged. Nextrade also dropped its pre-market that day, Asia Business Daily reported on Dec. 18, 2025.

The first trading day of 2027 is Monday, Jan. 4, because New Year's Day falls on a Friday. Check the KRX notice for that morning before placing early orders.

Closures can also be added during the year. Asia Business Daily reported on May 20, 2026, that the KRX would close on June 3, the day of local elections, and on July 17, Constitution Day.

For 2027, the government's holiday calendar, released on June 29, 2026, is the guide until the KRX confirms its own schedule. Seollal, the Lunar New Year, falls on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2027, with a four-day break from Saturday, Feb. 6, to Tuesday, Feb. 9, that includes a substitute holiday, the Financial News reported. Under KRX rules, that points to closures on Feb. 8 and Feb. 9.

Chuseok, the autumn harvest holiday, falls on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2027, with a break from Tuesday, Sept. 14, to Thursday, Sept. 16.

Several 2027 holidays fall on weekends, so the calendar adds substitute public holidays on six Mondays: May 3, July 19, Aug. 16, Oct. 4, Oct. 11 and Dec. 27. Labor Day and Constitution Day have been public holidays for government offices since 2026, and both get a substitute day in 2027.

Other weekday holidays in 2027 include New Year's Day on Friday, Jan. 1, Independence Movement Day on Monday, March 1, and Children's Day on Wednesday, May 5. Under KRX rules, the market also closes on Friday, Dec. 31, 2027.

What Changes on College Entrance Exam Day?

On Thursday, Nov. 19, 2026, students across Korea will sit the suneung, the national college entrance exam. The government will ask public institutions and private companies to have staff report to work after 10 a.m., Yonhap reported in a story carried by the Korea JoongAng Daily.

The stock market will shift with it. The KRX said on Nov. 5, 2026, that it would temporarily push back that day's trading hours, the Korea Economic Daily and Seoul Economic Daily reported.

• KRX regular session: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., instead of 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The shift also applies to ETFs and ETNs.
• KRX closing-price trading: 9:30 a.m. to 9:40 a.m. before the open, and 4:40 p.m. to 5 p.m. after the close.
• KRX after-market: 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., so it still ends at the usual time. ETFs and ETNs remain excluded.
• Nextrade: No pre-market. The main market runs from 10 a.m. to 4:20 p.m., and the after-market from 4:40 p.m. to 8 p.m.

For a New York investor, the shifted regular session runs from 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 18, to 2:30 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 19, Eastern time.

What Time Is That in New York, London and Hong Kong?

Korea does not use daylight saving time, so the Seoul schedule never shifts with the seasons. In winter, Seoul is 14 hours ahead of New York, nine hours ahead of London and one hour ahead of Hong Kong.

When New York and London move their clocks forward for summer, each Seoul session starts one hour later on their clocks. The KRX regular session then runs from 8 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. in New York and from 1 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. in London.

In summer, the KRX after-market runs from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. in New York and from 8 a.m. to noon in London. Hong Kong stays one hour behind Seoul all year.

For New York investors, the Korean week starts on Sunday evening: the 9 a.m. Monday open in Seoul is 7 p.m. on Sunday in New York in winter.

Together, the two venues now offer a 12-hour trading day, but KRX auctions still set the official prices, a 30% band still caps each day's moves, and Korean holidays and the college exam still shape the calendar.