[Anchor]
Following the Democratic Party's landslide victory in the U.S. midterm elections, dubbed a "blue tsunami," South Korea's stock market turned deeply bearish today (Nov. 5). With significant impacts expected across the South Korean economy—ranging from semiconductors to overall growth—the KOSPI plunged by over 5%. Tonight's 8 o'clock news will provide in-depth coverage on how far the ripples of the U.S. midterms will spread.
First, reporter Lee Seong-hoon has the details.
[Reporter]
The Democratic landslide swept through the domestic stock market like a massive tsunami.
The KOSPI plummeted by more than 5% to drop to the 5,300 range, hitting its lowest level in seven months.
The KOSDAQ also surrendered the 700 mark.
Sell sidecars were triggered in both the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets.
Samsung Electronics dropped to as low as 190,000 won during the session before barely defending the "200,000-won Samsung" mark, while SK Hynix also tumbled by more than 9%.
Foreign selling was particularly aggressive, centered around large-cap semiconductor stocks. Foreign investors offloaded nearly 3.4 trillion won worth of shares in the main bourse alone.
Foreigners have dumped close to 6 trillion won in stocks over yesterday and today, with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix accounting for nearly 80% of that total.
The primary reason is that the Democratic Party, having won a landslide victory, has shown signs of tightening regulations on the construction of AI data centers due to massive power consumption and environmental concerns, unlike the Trump administration.
Even before these policies have become reality, shares of semiconductor and power equipment companies were crushed by panic.
[Park Sang-hyun / Researcher, iM Securities: As countries invest in AI, GPUs are actually in short supply. Therefore, the possibility that overall demand for GPUs and South Korea's semiconductors will plummet sharply just because data center spending slows down slightly is quite low....]
Defense stocks also declined across the board on prospects that the U.S. could end the war in Iran, while analyses suggesting oil prices could fall dragged down refinery stock prices.
Conversely, expectations that tariff pressures might ease pushed Hyundai Motor and Kia up by around 3% and 5%, respectively.
(Photo courtesy of Park Hyun-cheol | Video editing by Park Ji-in)
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