KOSPI Plummets Below 6,000 Amid Panic Selling, Triggers Consecutive Circuit Breakers for Second Day

[Anchor]

The KOSPI plummeted by more than 1,000 points over two days, sliding down to the 5,600 range. Market movements seem better explained by investor emotions rather than earnings or forecasts, and fear is currently dominating the market.

Reporter Lee Tae-gwon has the details.

[Reporter]

After recovering from the plunge the day before yesterday (July 28) and opening higher, the KOSPI rebounded by up to 3% in early trading due to bargain hunting, but soon turned downward and expanded its losses.

Following a sell-side sidecar, a circuit breaker was triggered, temporarily halting trading for 20 minutes, while the index plunged more than 12% during the session to drop near the 5,200 level.

Later, as institutional buying poured in and narrowed the losses, the KOSPI closed down 5.9% from the day before yesterday at 5,663.

The KOSDAQ index also plummeted, triggering a circuit breaker. This marks the first time in history that circuit breakers have been triggered for two consecutive days in both markets.

In the KOSPI market, retail and foreign investors drove down the index by net-selling 1.9 trillion won and 1.2 trillion won, respectively.

SK Hynix plummeted nearly 20% during the session before closing down 9.6% from the day before yesterday in the 1.4 million won range. Samsung Electronics also dropped to the 180,000 won range before closing down 5% in the 200,000 won range.

Analysts suggest that although SK Hynix announced record-breaking earnings, they fell short of market expectations, and investor sentiment shrank amid concerns over the sustainability of AI investments, leading to panic selling.

[Interview / Kim Jae-seung, Researcher at Hyundai Motor Securities : With widespread concerns regarding a peak-out right now, the fact that it failed to meet market expectations seems to amplify worries that earnings are forming a peak and will gradually decline.]

As the stock market tumbles sharply day after day, retail investors are grappling with growing fear and distress.

[Interview / Retail Investor : Summer is hot, but my domestic stock market is cold. I'd rather not look at it, but they say if you just leave it buried, it goes back up....]

As extreme volatility persists, investor deposits—which serve as waiting funds for the stock market—plummeted by more than 20% from 139.6948 trillion won early last month, shrinking to 107.1994 trillion won.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
Reported by Kim Nam-sung and Ha Ryong | Video by Choi Jin-hwa | VJ: Jung Han-wook | Design: Kim Han-gil
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.