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SEOUL — South Korea’s financial regulator will ban short selling in listed shares on the Kospi and Kosdaq starting on March 16 for six months to curb speculative trading as the economic blow from the coronavirus outbreak widens.

The clampdown comes as Seoul’s benchmark index, the Kospi, plunged 13.2% this week, in its biggest drop since October 2008, even as President Moon Jae-in promised to offer “unprecedented measures” to help Asia’s fourth-largest economy cope with the coronavirus on Friday.

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The Financial Services Commission said the decision to ban all short selling is the strongest step it has taken to address equity market volatilities, to stem any herd-like behavior.

Short selling is when a trader borrows a company’s shares, typically from a broker, to sell them in expectation the price will fall. The trader then profits from the price decline when they repurchase the shares later to return them.