Kospi Suffers Black Thursday Plunge, Collapsing to 5,500 Range

[Anchor]

The Kospi, which had barely managed to hold the 6,000 mark, plummeted by more than 9% during intraday trading, sliding back to the 5,500 range. Falling for the seventh consecutive trading session, it is currently experiencing its longest losing streak in two years. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the two pillars of the semiconductor industry, collapsed helplessly again today (Oct. 15).

For our first story, here is reporter Lee Tae-gwon.

[Reporter]

The Kospi index has returned to levels seen half a year ago.

Expanding its losses right after the market opened, the index plunged by over 8%, triggering a circuit breaker that halted trading for 20 minutes.

After sinking as low as 5,450 during the session, it closed down 7.5% at 5,554.

This marks the lowest level since April 7.

Semiconductor giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix suffered steep plunges of over 9% and 11%, respectively, falling to 210,000 won and 1,262,000 won.

Foreign investors, who drove the market decline, net sold 3.6 trillion won, extending their selling streak to eight consecutive trading sessions.

The Kospi has fallen for seven straight trading sessions, marking its longest downward trend in two years since September 2024.

The total market capitalization of the Kospi shrank by 375 trillion won in a single day, dropping to 4,581 trillion won.

Overnight, negative outlooks regarding returns on AI infrastructure investment reemerged. Furthermore, as the U.S. consumer inflation rate for last month exceeded market expectations by 0.1 percentage points, concerns grew that the possibility of additional rate hikes has increased.

[Interview / Jung Yong-taek / Researcher, IBK Securities: There are concerns that rising interest rates could act as stumbling blocks for future AI investments or stock investments, and to sustain current investments, the scale of profits must swell at a much faster pace....]

While Japanese and Taiwanese stock markets also fell by 4.9% and 3.4%, the decline in South Korea's market was particularly pronounced.

[Interview / Kim Jae-seung / Researcher, Hyundai Motor Securities: Because the macroeconomic environment is unfavorable, we are seeing a tendency to avoid emerging market stocks altogether. Ultimately, investors seem to view investing within the U.S. as safer....]

In particular, compared to Taiwan, South Korea has a higher dependence on the memory business, and Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix still account for 47% of the domestic stock market, causing the market to repeatedly suffer heavier shocks whenever negative news emerges.

(Photo courtesy of SBS | Reported by Seol Chi-hwan, Video by Lee Seung-jin, VJ: Jung Han-wook, Design: Kim Ye-ji)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.