US 'Blue Tsunami' Sends KOSPI Plunging

[Anchor]

The South Korean stock market has turned pale in the wake of the Democratic Party's landslide victory, dubbed a "blue tsunami," in the U.S. midterm elections. The KOSPI plummeted by more than 5%, raising expectations of a significant impact on everything from semiconductors to the broader South Korean economy.

Reporter Lee Seong-hoon has the details.

[Reporter]

The Democratic landslide in the U.S. swept across the domestic stock market like a giant tsunami.

The KOSPI tumbled over 5% to fall back to the 5,300 range, hitting a seven-month low.

The tech-heavy KOSDAQ also surrendered the 700 mark.

Sell-sidecars were triggered in both the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets.

Samsung Electronics dropped as low as 190,000 won during intraday trading before barely managing to hold onto the 200,000-won threshold, while SK Hynix also plunged more than 9%.

Foreign selling was particularly fierce, centered on large-cap semiconductor stocks. Foreign investors offloaded nearly 3.4 trillion won worth of shares on the main bourse alone.

Foreigners have dumped close to 6 trillion won worth of stocks over yesterday (Nov. 4) 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, is moving to tighten regulations on AI data center construction—citing massive power consumption and environmental concerns—unlike the Trump administration.

Even though it has not yet become reality, shares of semiconductor and power equipment companies were crushed by fear.

[Interview / Park Sang-hyun, Researcher at iM Securities]: "As countries invest in AI, GPUs are actually in short supply. Therefore, the likelihood that overall demand for GPUs and South Korean semiconductors will plummet drastically just because data center spending has decreased slightly is quite low..."

Defense stocks also fell across the board on prospects that the U.S. could bring an end to the war involving Iran, while analyses suggesting oil prices could drop dragged down refinery stock prices.

Conversely, expectations that tariff pressures might ease pushed Hyundai Motor and Kia up by around 3% and 5%, respectively.

(Video reporting: Park Hyun-chul, Video editing: Park Ji-in)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.