Samsung, SK Hynix Plunge Over 8%... Single-Stock Leverage Trading Drops But Volatility Persists

[Anchor]

The KOSPI, which recorded its largest-ever surge last Friday, plummeted by more than 5% again today (August 3). While trading in single-stock leverage products has noticeably decreased, extreme volatility with no middle ground shows no signs of calming down.

Reporter Kim Hye-min has the details.

[Reporter]

The volatility of the KOSPI continued today.

Following a historic surge last Friday, the index plunged by over 5% today to close at 6,257.

SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, which had hit the daily upper limit, both tumbled by more than 8%.

Trading value for the 16 single-stock leverage products plummeted to the 1.3 trillion won range—more than a tenth of its peak levels and less than half compared to last Friday, when the required deposit was raised to 30 million won.

Although trading volume in leverage products—previously pointed to as the cause of sharp fluctuations—has declined, the skewed market structure where just two semiconductor stocks heavily sway the entire index was reaffirmed.

[Kim Dae-jong / Professor of Business Administration, Sejong University : Semiconductor companies like Micron Technology in the United States account for only about 1% to 2% of the entire U.S. market capitalization.]

Over the weekend, semiconductor stocks on the New York Stock Exchange took a breather, and the yen strengthened due to currency intervention by the U.S. and Japan. Concerns over a potential unwinding of the yen carry trade, which could lead to outflows of investment capital from the U.S., also appear to have partially impacted investor sentiment.

However, the dominant assessment among securities firms is that today's decline remains largely within the scope of profit-taking following last Friday's overheating.

[Kim Dong-won / Head of Research, KB Securities : We assess that margin trading volume was largely resolved as the KOSPI fell 22% during the month of July, leading leverage trading volume to enter a downward trend. In particular, with the KOSPI P/E ratio approaching 5x, investment appeal appears to have grown...]

Experts expect that our stock market will seek out its bottom line based on the earnings of AI-related companies such as AMD, Palantir, and SanDisk scheduled for release this week.

(Camera Reporter: Park Jin-ho | Video Editor: Park Ji-in | Designer: Lee Jong-jung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.