Exports Look Good, But KOSPI Plunges and Barely Holds onto 6,000 Level

[Anchor]

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has significantly raised its economic growth rate forecast for South Korea in just three months. Behind this upward revision is, once again, semiconductors. Samsung Electronics has ushered in an era of 100 trillion won in quarterly operating profit, and South Korea's exports this year are projected to exceed 1 trillion dollars for the fourth time in the world. However, separate from these solid performances, the local stock market is shaking violently. Amid the pursuit by Chinese memory makers and a supply-demand vacuum, the KOSPI plummeted below the 6,000 mark during intra-day trading for the first time in about two and a half months.

First, reporter Lee Seong-hoon has the details.

[Reporter]

KOSPI opened more than 3% lower and rapidly expanded its losses, dropping to the 5,900 range at one point during the session.

It ultimately closed at 6,035, plunging 348 points or 5.46% from the previous day (October 12), barely managing to defend the 6,000 line.

KOSPI's top two heavyweights, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, plummeted over 7% and 10%, respectively, dragging down the entire index.

Due to the sharp plunge in large-cap semiconductor stocks, a sell-sidecar was triggered in the morning, temporarily halting program sell orders for five minutes.

This is the first time in about two months since August 19.

Foreigners net sold more than 4.5 trillion won today, extending their selling streak to six consecutive sessions.

Having fallen for five straight trading days starting from October 6, the KOSPI's total market capitalization dropped below 5 quadrillion won.

Behind today's stock market plunge was the fear of technological catching up by Chinese semiconductors.

Chinese semiconductor company ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) unveiled its achievements in developing next-generation DRAM technology and even announced plans to release server products within this year.

Concerns over intensifying memory competition and falling prices swept the market, with Japanese memory firm Kioxia also plunging 13% today.

[Park Sang-hyun / Senior Analyst at iM Securities: The fear triggered over China's semiconductor rise had a significant negative impact on semiconductor stocks across the U.S. and broader Asian markets. The anxiety surrounding the semiconductor industry outlook itself further amplified the foreign selling trend...] anxieties surrounding the semiconductor industry itself further amplified foreign selling.]

Anxieties over cooling AI investments also added to the burden.

As executives from Broadcom and Intel pointed to capital raising as the biggest constraint on AI industry growth, forecasts that recent high-interest-rate conditions would slow down investments have reemerged.

As deteriorated investor sentiment from the collapse of the semiconductor duo spread across the entire stock market, the KOSPI faced a Black Tuesday.

(Video Journalist: Shin Jin-soo, Video Editor: So Ji-hye)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.