KOSPI Rebounds to 8,000 in One Day; 'Leveraged Trading' Chases Underlying Stocks

[Anchor]

The KOSPI, which had plummeted, saw a sharp rebound yesterday (July 3), reclaiming the 8,000-point mark in just one day. Analysts point out that the trading volume of leveraged products for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix has reached 60% of the underlying stocks, pushing stock volatility to the extreme.

Reporter Min Gyeongho has the story.

[Reporter]

The KOSPI fell by more than 3% early in the session, dropping to the 7,300 range.

However, the market shifted direction sharply starting at 10:00 a.m., recovering the 8,000 mark in the afternoon, and even triggering a buy-side sidecar.

The index eventually closed at 8,088, up 5.7%.

The intraday volatility reached 758 points, the second-highest in history.

Samsung Electronics surged by over 8%, and SK Hynix jumped by over 10%, reclaiming the 300,000 won and 2.4 million won levels, respectively.

While U.S. semiconductor stocks fell for two consecutive days due to negative news from Meta—which plans to sell excess data center resources to third parties for its cloud business—the Korean market deemed the news already digested and focused on positive factors, succeeding in a rebound.

It appears that U.S. employment data falling below expectations, which lowered the possibility of monetary tightening, and expectations for Samsung Electronics' earnings announcement next week were reflected in the market.

[Interview] Shin Seung-jin / Investment Information Team Leader, Samsung Securities: "Samsung Electronics' earnings announcement is scheduled for the 7th, and there is also the SK Hynix ADR listing. The question is whether these are truly negative events for Korean semiconductor stocks, or rather positive..."

As the concentration of large-cap semiconductor stocks intensifies, the KOSPI is showing the highest volatility among major global stock markets despite facing the same positive and negative factors.

The daily trading volume of 16 single-stock leveraged ETF products for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, identified as the main cause of the increased volatility, has surged to reach 62% of the underlying stocks.

This is an highly unusual situation compared to the U.S., where the trading volume of the largest single-stock leveraged product for Nvidia accounts for only 1 to 2% of the underlying stock.

Amid the extreme volatility, the scale of forced liquidations—where stocks are forcibly sold because individuals cannot repay money borrowed from securities firms for investment—reached 1.12 trillion won over the past month.

(Reported by Kim Hak-mo | Video by Kim Jin-won | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.