Samsung and SK Hynix in the Morning, Kia in the Afternoon... Domestic Market Plummets Over 3%

[Anchor]

The domestic stock market, which seemed to be stabilizing, shook once again today (October 30) and plummeted by more than 3 percent. Semiconductor stocks took a hit in the morning, followed by automaker Kia in the afternoon.

Reporter Kim Gi-tae analyzes what is driving this downturn.

[Reporter]

The KOSPI closed down 3.48 percent at 5,730.74 today.

While foreign investors dragged down the index by net-selling 1.6 trillion won, retail investors net-bought 630 billion won and the National Pension Service net-bought 900 billion won, but it was not enough to turn the tide.

The index showed a steep downward trend early in the session, triggering a sell-sidecar on the KOSPI market at one point during the morning.

In the morning, the share prices of semiconductor companies slumped significantly.

This was affected by overnight Wall Street trading, where Google's parent company Alphabet saw nearly 670 trillion won in market capitalization evaporate.

The decline came as third-quarter revenue fell short of market expectations because people asked artificial intelligence for answers and relied less on traditional searches, while AI-related expenditures surged by 114 percent.

Amazon and Intel also saw their third-quarter earnings miss market expectations as massive investment costs weighed them down.

Worried that a cutback in investments would deal a blow to domestic semiconductor firms, Samsung Electronics tumbled 3.02 percent and SK Hynix plunged 7.08 percent.

[Lee Jin-woo / Head of Research Center, Meritz Securities: Because sensitivity to the investment cycle is so high and uncertainties are relatively high, concerns regarding earnings visibility and sustainability are being reflected in advance...]

Then in the afternoon, Kia shares slumped by nearly 12 percent.

Although revenue exceeded 31 trillion won to record an all-time high, operating profit fell 22 percent short of market expectations.

The company explained that incentive payouts were increased to sell more electric vehicles amid rising raw material costs driven by the Middle East conflict and other factors, which translates to a bleeding competition to protect market share.

Kia acknowledged the ongoing difficulties by stating, "It will not be easy for profitability to improve significantly in the fourth quarter either."

In short, South Korea's two flagship industries shook alternately within a single day, and the stock market is expected to remain on thin ice for the time being, reacting instantly to every piece of news.

(Video取材: Shin Jin-soo, Video Editing: Kim Jin-won)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.