KOSPI Plunges 5.5% on "Black Tuesday"... Briefly Collapsing Below 6,000 During Intraday Trading

[Anchor]

The KOSPI plummeted more than 5 percent in closing price today (the 13th), facing a literal "Black Tuesday." During intraday trading, it crashed more than 7 percent, briefly collapsing below the 6,000-point mark.

Reporter Jeong Seong-jin has the details.

[Reporter]

Starting 3.1 percent lower, the KOSPI rapidly expanded its losses from the early trading session.

Just 47 minutes after the market opened, a sell sidecar was triggered, suspending program sell quotes for five minutes.

This marks the 50th sidecar activation in the KOSPI market this year and the first in about two months since mid-August.

The decline continued afterwards, breaking the 6,000 threshold and plunging over 7 percent to as low as 5,911.

The KOSPI barely managed to defend the 6,000 line, closing down 5.5 percent at 6,035.

Having recovered the 7,000 level on the 2nd, the KOSPI extended its losing streak to five consecutive sessions, giving back 1,000 points.

Semiconductors were at the center of the sharp decline.

SK Hynix plummeted 10 percent down to the 1.44 million won range, and Samsung Electronics also tumbled over 7 percent, sliding to the 230,000 won range (referred to as "230,000 electronics").

Concerns over oversupply resurfaced after news broke that Chinese semiconductor firm ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) had made progress in DRAM memory technology and planned to unveil next-generation server products. This was compounded by remarks from the CEO of U.S. chipmaker Broadcom that capital raising could become a constraining factor, leading to a continued bearish trend in semiconductor stocks.

Overnight on Wall Street, despite mixed trading, semiconductor stocks like Micron showed a downward trend, while Japanese chipmaker Kioxia also suffered a plunge of over 10 percent.

Following net sales exceeding 2 trillion won the previous day, foreign investors net sold 4.5 trillion won today.

Retail and institutional investors absorbed the incoming selling pressure, but it was not enough to prevent the index from falling.

(Video Editing: So Ji-hye)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.