Korea Stock Market Holidays 2026: When the KRX Is Closed

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The Korea Exchange (KRX) is closed on weekends, on Korean public holidays (including substitute holidays and election days) and on one year-end closing day, which is December 31 in 2026. In 2026 that adds up to 17 weekday closures, and as of October 16, 2026 only two are left: Friday, December 25 (Christmas) and Thursday, December 31. The last trading day of 2026 is Wednesday, December 30. The first of 2027 should be Monday, January 4, when KRX traditionally opens an hour late, at 10:00 Korea Standard Time (KST).

Is the Korean stock market open today?

KRX trades Monday to Friday unless the date is on its holiday calendar. Dates on this page are in Korea Standard Time (KST, UTC+9, with no daylight saving time), so a Seoul holiday begins on the previous evening in New York. To check a given day:

• Saturday or Sunday: closed.
• A date in the 2026 table below (or, for next year, the expected 2027 table): closed.
• Any other weekday: open, with the regular session from 09:00 to 15:30 KST plus pre-market and after-market sessions. Our Korea stock market hours guide lists every session in New York and London time.

One more date changes the timetable without closing the market: the college entrance exam (CSAT) on Thursday, November 19, 2026. On the 2025 exam day, KRX ran its regular session from 10:00 to 16:30, and Nextrade skipped its pre-market and moved its main market to 10:00–16:20. As of October 16, 2026, neither venue had announced its schedule for the 2026 exam.

Korea stock market holidays 2026: the full KRX calendar

KRX’s official holiday calendar lists the 17 weekday closures below. They apply to the whole exchange: the KOSPI, KOSDAQ and KONEX stock markets (see KOSPI vs KOSDAQ), ETFs, ETNs and bonds, the derivatives market and the commodity markets. With 261 weekdays in the year, 2026 has 244 trading days.

Some holidays fell on weekends and did not close the market. Memorial Day (Saturday, June 6) had no substitute day. The third day of Chuseok fell on Saturday, September 26 and did not produce a substitute day either, so after a two-day Chuseok closure the market reopened on Monday, September 28.

Why are Labor Day, Constitution Day and election day on the list?

Two holidays changed status in 2026. May 1 was already a KRX closure as Workers’ Day: the exchange’s calendar shows the market shut on May 1 in 2023, 2024 and 2025. In 2026 the Public Holidays Act was amended so that Labor Day (노동절) became a public holiday for everyone, including civil servants and teachers. Constitution Day (July 17), which marks the promulgation of the 1948 constitution, had been dropped as a public holiday in 2008 and was restored after 18 years.

On April 28, 2026 the Cabinet approved the matching change to the regulation on government-office holidays. It also gives both days a substitute holiday when they fall on a weekend or another holiday, which matters in 2027, when both fall on a Saturday. On May 20, 2026 KRX said it would close its securities, derivatives and commodity markets on July 17 as a regular holiday, and on June 3 for the local elections.

Election days are public holidays, and KRX closes for them. Its calendar shows closures for the March 9, 2022 presidential election and the June 1, 2022 local elections, as well as for June 3, 2026. The government can also declare one-off temporary holidays, as it did on October 2, 2023, October 1, 2024 and January 27, 2025, and KRX closed on each of those days. A holiday calendar printed far in advance can therefore be incomplete.

When does the market close for the year, and what time does it open in January?

KRX takes one year-end closing day: December 31, or the last weekday before it when December 31 falls on a weekend. That is why the market closed on Friday, December 30, 2022 and Friday, December 29, 2023. In 2026, December 31 is a Thursday, so the last trading day is Wednesday, December 30. New Year’s Day 2027 is a Friday, so the first trading day of 2027 should be Monday, January 4.

On the first trading day of each year KRX holds an opening ceremony and starts trading one hour late. On Friday, January 2, 2026 the stock market’s regular session opened at 10:00 KST instead of 09:00 and the derivatives market at 09:45, with closing times unchanged. Nextrade skipped its pre-market that day and started its main market at 10:00:30. Those arrangements were announced in mid-December 2025. As of October 16, 2026 KRX had not announced the 2027 opening, but a 10:00 start on Monday, January 4 would follow its usual practice.

Because Korea has no daylight saving time, the gap to New York and London changes when their clocks do:

How does Nextrade handle holidays?

Nextrade, Korea’s alternative trading system (ATS), trades a selected list of KRX-listed shares (our hours guide explains its sessions). It does not trade on KRX holidays and posts its own notice for each closure. For the 2025 year-end it made Tuesday, December 30 its last trading day and declared Wednesday, December 31 a holiday that was also excluded from settlement days.

Nextrade also follows KRX’s timetable changes. On January 2, 2026 it ran no pre-market and opened its main market and its block and basket market at 10:00:30, with normal closing times. On the 2025 exam day it again skipped its pre-market. So on days when KRX opens late, Nextrade’s usual 08:00 start is not available, and on a KRX holiday Seoul-listed shares cannot be traded in Korea at all.

What happens to EWY and Korean ADRs when Seoul is closed?

US-listed Korea products follow the New York calendar, not KRX’s. The iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) on NYSE Arca, other Korea ETFs such as FLKR, and the American depositary receipts (ADRs) of Korean companies keep trading on Korean holidays whenever the US market is open. Around Chuseok 2026, for example, Seoul’s last session before the break ended on Wednesday, September 23 (KST) and the market reopened on Monday, September 28. In between, New York held three full sessions (September 23, 24 and 25, New York time) with no live Seoul prices.

This matters for pricing. EWY’s summary prospectus, under “National Closed Market Trading Risk”, warns that when the fund’s foreign market is closed while its US exchange is open, the current value of its holdings is likely to deviate from their last quoted prices. That can produce larger premiums or discounts to net asset value than other funds experience. ADRs face the same problem, because the arbitrage that ties them to Seoul prices needs the Seoul market to be open. Moves in New York during a Korean holiday show how US investors are pricing news, but Korean shares only reflect it when KRX reopens. Our guides to Korean stocks in the US and EWY vs FLKR cover these products, and KOSPI circuit breakers and sidecars explains the brakes that apply if a reopening is violent.

The currency keeps moving too. Since July 6, 2026 the onshore won-dollar market has traded on Korean weekday public holidays, except January 1, with settlement on the next business day. The exchange rate used to value ADRs and ETFs can therefore change while Korean stocks cannot be traded.

The reverse also happens: New York closes or closes early on days when Seoul trades. The remaining differences around the 2026 year-end:

How do holidays affect settlement, dividends and derivatives?

Settlement (T+2)

Korean share trades settle two business days after the trade date (T+2), and market holidays, including the year-end closing day, do not count. Nextrade’s notice for December 31, 2025, for example, stated that the day was excluded from settlement days. Around the 2026 year-end, that stretches settlement as follows:

Sale proceeds therefore stay locked over the break, and an overseas broker may add its own delay before the cash can be withdrawn or converted. Our guide on how to buy Korean stocks explains accounts and currency conversion.

Year-end dividends

For companies that still use December 31 as their dividend record date, buyers must settle by the last trading day. For the 2025 year-end, the ex-dividend date for these companies was Monday, December 29, so shares had to be bought by Friday, December 26. Applying the same T+2 arithmetic to the 2026 calendar, the last day to buy should be Monday, December 28, 2026, with the ex-dividend date on Tuesday, December 29. These dates are normally confirmed in December. Many companies can now set their record date after deciding the dividend (see our Value-up guide), so check each company’s notice on DART or KIND.

Futures and options expiry

KOSPI 200 futures and monthly options expire on the second Thursday of the contract month. If that day is a holiday, the last trading day moves to the trading day before. Thursday weekly options are also brought forward when their expiry day is a holiday, while Monday weeklies are pushed back. No monthly expiry fell on a holiday in 2026, but under this rule a Thursday weekly due on December 31, 2026 would expire on Wednesday, December 30. In 2027, Buddha’s Birthday falls on Thursday, May 13, the second Thursday of the month, so May’s monthly expiry should move to Wednesday, May 12.

KRX’s derivatives night session (18:00 to 06:00 KST) also stops for holidays. For June 3 and July 17, 2026, KRX cancelled the night sessions that would have started on the holidays themselves but ran the sessions on the evenings before. Before Chuseok it went further and cancelled the September 23 session, on the evening before the break, citing the risk of carrying positions through a long holiday. It said it would do the same before other long holidays. Over the 2025 year-end, by contrast, the December 30 night session ran normally.

Korea stock market holidays 2027 (expected)

KRX has not yet formally announced its 2027 schedule; it usually confirms the year-end closing and the next year’s opening arrangements in mid-December. The public holidays are already set, though. The Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) released the official 2027 calendar (월력요항) on June 29, 2026, and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) publishes the dates. KRX’s online holiday database already holds the same 2027 dates, plus December 31 as the year-end closing day. On that basis, expect 16 weekday closures and 245 trading days:

Weekend holidays shape 2027. Labor Day and Constitution Day both fall on Saturdays, the first time their new substitute-holiday rule applies in practice, so the market should close on Mondays May 3 and July 19 instead. Hangul Day and Christmas also fall on Saturdays, giving Monday closures on October 11 and December 27. Memorial Day (Sunday, June 6) has no substitute day. The last trading day of 2027 would be Thursday, December 30.

Frequently asked questions

Last reviewed: October 16, 2026.

Sources

1. Market Status: Market Closing (Holiday), 2022–2027 calendar data, Korea Exchange, accessed October 16, 2026
2. KOSPI 200 Options: contract specifications, Korea Exchange, accessed October 2026
3. KOSPI 200 futures and options: product guide (in Korean), Daol Investment & Securities, accessed October 2026
4. 2025 year-end market schedule and trading hours on the 2026 opening day (Jan 2) (in Korean), Nextrade, December 18, 2025
5. Stock market closed on local election day and Constitution Day (in Korean), BizWatch, May 20, 2026
6. Labor Day on May 1 and Constitution Day on July 17 become public holidays from this year (in Korean), Newsis, April 28, 2026
7. 2027 calendar (월력요항) released (in Korean), Korea AeroSpace Administration via Korea.kr, June 29, 2026
8. Calendar data: public holidays by year, 2026 and 2027 (in Korean), Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, accessed October 2026
9. New year’s regular session starts at 10 a.m. on Jan 2; market closed on Dec 31 (in Korean), Asia Economy, December 18, 2025
10. KRX suspends derivatives night session on the eve of Chuseok (in Korean), SBS Biz, September 9, 2026
11. iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) summary prospectus, iShares, Inc. / SEC EDGAR, December 30, 2025
12. Holidays and trading hours, 2026 and 2027, New York Stock Exchange, accessed October 2026
13. Onshore won-dollar market moves to 24-hour trading from July 6 (in Korean), The Financial News / Newsis, July 5, 2026
14. Banks and stock market open at 10 a.m. on CSAT day (in Korean), Newsis, November 13, 2025
15. CSAT on November 19; KICE to keep moderate difficulty (in Korean), Herald Business, March 30, 2026

This guide explains how the Korean market works for general information. It is not investment, legal or tax advice; rules change, so check the official sources listed above or a qualified adviser before acting.