KOSPI Plunges 8.95% on 'Black Monday,' Falls Below 7,000

[Anchor]

The KOSPI has faced a Black Monday, collapsing below the 7,000-point mark. On May 6, the KOSPI surpassed 7,000 points for the first time in history, and just 20 days later, it broke through the 8,000-point threshold. Only a month ago, it reached 9,000 points, fueling optimistic forecasts that it might even surpass the dream milestone of 10,000 points. However, amid recurring concerns over a peak in the semiconductor cycle and increased volatility from leveraged ETFs tied to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the index gave up the 8,000 level earlier this month and plummeted to the 6,800 range today (July 13).

Our first report is from Jeong Seong-jin.

[Reporter]

The KOSPI opened slightly lower at 7,412 and, after repeated fluctuations, saw its losses widen rapidly.

A sidecar was triggered as the KOSPI 200 futures index fell by more than 5%, and the 7,000-point mark collapsed shortly after noon.

Subsequently, a circuit breaker was triggered, halting trading for 20 minutes due to a sharp decline of over 8%.

This marks the 7th circuit breaker this year and the 13th in history.

The KOSPI ultimately closed at 6,806, a sharp decline of nearly 9%, returning to levels seen about two months ago.

The plunge was largely driven by the sharp drops in the market's two leaders, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

SK Hynix plummeted more than 15%, breaking the 2 million won mark and falling into the 1.8 million won range, while Samsung Electronics closed at the 250,000 won level, down 10%.

Although individual investors net-bought nearly 4 trillion won in shares, institutions and foreigners net-sold 2.2 trillion won and 1.7 trillion won, respectively, dragging down the index.

Analysts point to a combination of factors: the persistent theory that the semiconductor market has peaked due to slowing AI investment, and rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran over the weekend, which triggered a flood of profit-taking and risk-aversion selling.

[Interview: Seok Byung-hoon, Professor of Economics at Ewha Womans University]
"Until new evidence emerges that investment demand related to AI will continue to grow, the possibility of corrections driven by profit-taking and concerns over a market peak appears high for the time being."

It is also analyzed that the volatility of leveraged products further amplified the decline, as single-stock leveraged products for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix all hit record lows.

The total market capitalization of the domestic stock market, which had surpassed 8 quadrillion won last month to rank 6th in the world, fell to the 6 quadrillion won range, dropping two spots to 8th globally.

(Reported by Shin Jin-soo | Video by Yoon Tae-ho | Graphics by Park Tae-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.