[Anchor]
The Kospi has plummeted for seven consecutive trading sessions. Yesterday (October 15), Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which account for about half of the Kospi's market capitalization, plunged by around 10 percent, dragging the index down to the 5,500 range.
Our first report comes from reporter Lee Tae-gwon.
[Reporter]
The Kospi index has returned to levels seen half a year ago.
After expanding its losses right after the market opened, it plunged by more than 8 percent, triggering a circuit breaker that halted trading for 20 minutes.
During the session, it slumped as low as 5,450 before closing down 7.5 percent at 5,554.
This marks the lowest level since April 7.
Semiconductor industry leaders Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix plummeted by 9 percent and 11 percent, respectively, falling to 210,000 won and 1,262,000 won.
Foreign investors, who drove the market decline, net-sold 3.6 trillion won, continuing a selling streak for eight straight trading sessions.
The Kospi has fallen for seven consecutive trading sessions, marking its longest losing streak in two years since September 2024.
The Kospi market capitalization shrank by 375 trillion won in a single day yesterday, dropping to 4,581 trillion won.
Overnight, negative outlooks on the return on investment for AI infrastructure emerged once more. In addition, the U.S. consumer inflation rate for last month exceeded market expectations by 0.1 percentage points, raising concerns over the possibility of additional interest rate hikes.
[Jung Yong-taek / Researcher, IBK Securities: There are concerns that rising interest rates could act as a stumbling block for future AI investments or stock investments, and to sustain current investments, the scale of profits would need to snowball at a much faster pace.]
Stock markets in Japan and Taiwan also fell by 4.9 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively, but South Korea's market suffered a notably steeper decline.
[Kim Jae-seung / Researcher, Hyundai Motor Securities: Due to an unfavorable macroeconomic environment, we are seeing a tendency to avoid emerging market stocks altogether. It seems investors ultimately view investing within the U.S. as safer.]
In particular, compared to Taiwan, South Korea's heavy reliance on the memory business and the fact that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix still account for 47 percent of the domestic stock market lead to a recurring pattern of volatile reactions whenever bad news breaks.
(Camera: Seol Chi-hwan, Video Editing: Lee Seung-jin, VJ: Jung Han-wook, Design: Kim Ye-ji)
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