Despite Strong Exports, KOSPI Plunges and Barely Holds 6,000 Mark

[Anchor]

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has significantly raised its economic growth forecast for South Korea this year to 3.3%. However, despite this outlook, the KOSPI plummeted at one point during the session to drop below the 6,000 mark.

Reporter Lee Seong-hoon has the details.

[Reporter]

Starting down more than 3%, the KOSPI 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, barely managing to defend the 6,000 threshold.

KOSPI heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix dragged down the index by plummeting over 7% and 10%, respectively.

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

This marks about two months since August 19.

Foreign investors net sold over 4.5 trillion won yesterday (the 13th), extending their selling streak to six consecutive sessions.

Having fallen for five straight sessions starting from the 6th, the KOSPI's total market capitalization dropped below 5 trillion won.

Behind the steep market decline was fear over technological catch-up by Chinese semiconductors.

Chinese memory chip maker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) unveiled its achievements in next-generation DRAM technology development and even announced plans to release server products within the year.

Concerns over intensified memory competition and falling prices swept the market, with Japanese memory company Kioxia also plunging 13%.

[Park Sang-hyun / Senior Analyst at iM Securities: The provocation of fear over China's semiconductor rise by the U.S. stock market and overall Asian stock markets had a quite significant negative impact on semiconductor industry stocks. The anxiety surrounding the semiconductor industry itself further amplified the selling trend by foreign investors...]br />
Anxiety over shrinking AI investments also weighed heavily as a burden.

As executives of Broadcom and Intel pointed to capital procurement as the biggest limiting factor for the growth of the AI industry, forecasts resurfaced that the recent high-interest-rate environment would slow down investments.

As investor sentiment deteriorated due to the collapse of the two semiconductor giants and spread across the broader stock market, the KOSPI faced a Black Tuesday.

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