KOSPI Plunges Below 5,500 on Black Thursday Amid Record Slump

[Anchor]

The KOSPI plummeted by more than 7%, sliding down to the 5,500 level. Marking its seventh consecutive day of losses, the market is experiencing its longest downward trend in two years.

Reporter Lee Tae-gwon has our first report.

[Reporter]

The KOSPI index has retreated to levels seen half a year ago.

Expanding its losses right after the market opened, the index plunged over 8%, triggering a circuit breaker that halted trading for 20 minutes.

After dropping as low as 5,450 during the session, the index closed down 7.5% at 5,554.

This marks the lowest level since April 7.

Semiconductor heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix suffered steep plunges of over 9% and 11%, respectively, falling to 210,000 won and 1,262,000 won.

Foreign investors, who drove the market decline, net sold 3.6 trillion won, extending their selling streak to eight trading sessions.

The KOSPI has fallen for seven straight trading sessions, marking the longest losing streak in two years since September 2024.

The total market capitalization of the KOSPI shrank by 375 trillion won in a single day yesterday (the 15th), contracting to 4,581 trillion won.

Concerns grew after negative outlooks regarding returns on AI infrastructure investments emerged overnight, and the U.S. consumer price inflation rate for last month exceeded market expectations by 0.1 percentage points, raising worries 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 needs to grow at a much faster pace..."]

While Japanese and Taiwanese stock markets also fell by 4.9% and 3.4%, the drop in the domestic stock market was particularly pronounced.

[Kim Jae-seung / Researcher, Hyundai Motor Securities: "As the macroeconomic environment is unfavorable, there is a tendency to avoid emerging market equities altogether. Ultimately, it seems investors view investing within the U.S. as safer..."]

In particular, compared to Taiwan, South Korea's high reliance on the memory business and the fact that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix still account for 47% of the domestic stock market lead to repeated instances of the market being shaken more severely whenever negative news breaks.

(Photo: Seol Chi-hwan, Video Editing: Lee Seung-jin, VJ: Jung Han-wook, Design: Kim Ye-ji)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.