SK Hynix Plunges 9.6% Following Earnings Release, Sinks Near 20% Intraday

SK Hynix plummeted nearly 20% at one point during trading today (the 29th) before recouping some of its losses to finish the regular session.

In the main bourse, SK Hynix closed down 9.61% from the previous session at 1,401,000 won.

Starting 1.10% higher at 1,567,000 won, SK Hynix surged as much as 4.45% to 1,619,000 won immediately after the market opened, but soon gave up its gains and turned downward.

Around 1:30 p.m., the stock plunged as low as 1,246,000 won, down 19.61%.

Samsung Electronics closed down 5.23% from the previous session at 208,500 won.

Samsung Electronics showed a relatively solid trend, opening 2.95% higher at 226,500 won and climbing up to 234,000 won.

However, as SK Hynix plummeted, Samsung Electronics likewise turned weak, with its losses temporarily widening to 14.00%.

While bargain hunting flowed in during early trading following 13% to 14% plunges the previous day, disappointment over SK Hynix's earnings missing market expectations and the lack of specific details regarding shareholder returns during its conference call triggered heavy selling.

As a result, the share prices of SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics plummeted by 22.85% and 17.91%, respectively, over just two trading sessions.

SK Hynix reported a preliminary consolidated operating profit of 60,542.6 billion won for the second quarter of this year, up 557.2% from the same period last year.

This marks a record-high quarterly performance.

The operating margin reached a staggering 76%.

However, this operating profit was about 4.7% lower than the market consensus of 63,552.6 billion won compiled by Yonhap Infomax.

Revenue rose 256.8% year-over-year to 79,318.7 billion won, while net income surged 1,242.5% to 93,922.6 billion won.

Addressing concerns over cuts to artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure investment—which had sparked the correction in semiconductor stocks—SK Hynix stated during the conference call, "As AI competition and service expansion among cloud service providers (CSPs) continue, we expect AI infrastructure investment to remain robust beyond next year."

The company also forecasted that "earnings improvements will be further reinforced in the second half as the effect of rising average selling prices (ASPs) from mix improvements combines."

Regarding the progress of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) price negotiations for next year, it explained, "Specific prices and details are difficult to disclose due to contracts," adding, "We are discussing supply volumes and prices with key customers, and discussions are proceeding smoothly based on robust customer demand."

Regarding shareholder returns, the company stated it is reviewing various methods of additional shareholder returns.

Meanwhile, in the U.S. overnight, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plummeted 4.49% as semiconductor stocks such as Micron (-8.85%), AMD (-8.15%), and Western Digital (-6.91%) suffered steep drops under the influence of the previous day's plunge in the South Korean stock market.

In the main stock market today, institutional investors were net buyers, purchasing 3,148.8 billion won entirely on their own.

Among institutions, prominent buying came from financial investment (1,827.9 billion won), pension funds (338.0 billion won), and investment trusts (345.6 billion won).

Conversely, retail and foreign investors were net sellers, offloading 1,976.6 billion won and 1,210.1 billion won, respectively.

In the KOSPI electrical and electronic sector, which includes Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, institutions recorded a buying superiority of 2,342.5 billion won, whereas individuals and foreigners recorded a selling superiority of 878.0 billion won and 1,495.6 billion won.

SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics ranked first and second, respectively, in net foreign selling for the day.

Foreigners net sold 1,217.3 billion won of SK Hynix and 726.8 billion won of Samsung Electronics.

Meanwhile, U.S. market capitalization research site CompaniesMarketCap.com reported that the market caps of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix stood at 945.3 billion dollars and 686.7 billion dollars as of today's market close, ranking them 15th and 20th among major global listed companies.

This represents a drop of 3 and 2 notches, respectively, from the previous trading day.

CompaniesMarketCap.com also calculated that based on 162 major listed domestic companies, South Korea's stock market capitalization stood at 2,978.0 billion dollars as of today, ranking around 10th globally.

Until early June this year, before the global semiconductor correction began, the market cap of South Korea's major companies was evaluated as 5th in the world, following the United States, mainland China, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

According to the Korea Exchange, as of today's market close, the market caps of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix stood at 1,218,949.1 billion won and 1,023,419.8 billion won, respectively, with the two stocks accounting for 48.03% of the entire KOSPI.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.