[Anchor]
With the KOSPI plunging more than 20% since last week, individual investors are expressing deep concerns. The fear index, which reflects stock market volatility, has surged. As investors cannot even figure out where the bottom is, they are suffering from anxiety.
Reporter Hong Yeongjae has the details.
[Reporter]
Individual investors sighed deeply as they looked at their accounts stained with blue.
[Kwon Hyun-min / Yangcheon-gu, Seoul: I have Samsung Electronics and SK Square. They dropped a lot this morning (the 15th). I woke up at 8 o'clock and started watching from 8. My heart sank and I felt terrible.]
Since the 6th, the drop in the KOSPI has reached 21%. In particular, market capitalization leaders Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix plummeted by 24% and 31%, respectively.
Investors are agonizing, saying the drop happened so fast that they even missed the timing to cut their losses.
[Choi Su-jung / Yangcheon-gu, Seoul: Jensen Huang came, and I made my choice seeing that. People kept talking about semiconductors. I am not going to cut my losses. (Is it because the drop is too big?) Yes, it is big. That's also huge. I just can't cut losses.]
Because volatility had been decreasing following regulations on single-stock leverage ETFs, the sudden crash is even more baffling.
The KOSPI 200 Volatility Index, often called the "Korean fear index," recorded its third-highest increase rate ever and closed at its highest level in a month and a half.
[Individual Investor: My mother invested in Hynix and was completely ruined. She used to invest in Bitcoin, but she said, "Taking all that out and putting it into stocks turned out even worse." I guess she won't be able to withdraw until she averages down and eventually makes a profit.]
The damage to individual investors who borrowed money to invest is also growing.
Forced liquidations, where securities firms forcefully sell held stocks because borrowers fail to repay their loans, exceeded 89.3 billion won yesterday (the 14th), marking the highest level in about two months. It is estimated that even more liquidations came out today.
Reactions poured in online, with people saying they have lost the will to work or that keeping money in savings accounts is much more comforting.
With Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix finishing their treasury stock buybacks, and the National Pension Service reportedly lacking the capacity for additional purchases due to the suspension of its first-half rebalancing, anxiety that the bottom is unknown is spreading among investors.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
Reported by Choi Ho-jun | Video by Jeon Min-gyu | Graphics by Park Cheon-woong
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