"Thought a War Broke Out" Panic… Retail Investors Lose "13 Trillion Won" in a Day

[Anchor]

Today (November 6), major South Korean companies spanning semiconductors, batteries, automobiles, and shipbuilding were all stained in blue. In this visual chart, the larger the rectangle, the greater the market capitalization. As you can see, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix account for nearly half, creating a massive weight that threw investors into a state of shock. "Seohak ants" (Korean retail investors trading in U.S. markets) also wiped out at least 13 trillion won in a single day, leaving them devastated.

Reporter Kim Gi-tae has the details.

[Reporter]

Today in broad daylight in Yeouido, Seoul, open spaces outside office buildings are packed with office workers out for a cigarette.

With the trading screens entirely flashing blue, it is impossible to focus on work.

[Individual Investor A: It is really bad. My portfolio is completely cut in half. It is down even more than half. I am just trying not to look at it anymore. My blood pressure goes up every time I look.]

Retail investors who engaged in bottom-fishing hoping for a rebound can only sigh, saying, "I do not even have the cash left to average down."

[Individual Investor B: When the market goes up, they keep talking all the time. Why do they say nothing when it goes down? Analysts are the same. It just instills distrust in the market. Right now... honestly, I thought North Korea had invaded.]

With nowhere to vent their grievances, retail investors gathered in an online temple.

They offer bows and float lanterns inscribed with wishes for upper-limit price surges, comforting each other in their shared misery.

In particular, as Wall Street plunged, retail investors trading in U.S. markets, so-called Seohak ants, are also estimated to have suffered massive losses.

Tesla, in which domestic investors hold 30 trillion won, plummeted by more than 10%, and Nvidia, holding 22 trillion won worth of shares, saw an amount equivalent to the entire market cap of Coca-Cola evaporate in a single day.

The leveraged semiconductor exchange-traded product known as "SOXL," where about 3 in 10 investors are reportedly South Korean and which triples the daily price fluctuations of semiconductor stocks, crashed by nearly 40% overnight.

It is estimated that Seohak ants lost more than 13 trillion won today alone.

[Kim Doo-eun (Vincent) / Senior Research Fellow at Hana Securities: I think it is important not to get too caught up in emotions. Buying slowly and selling slowly... meaning, rather than reacting to rapidly changing prices, you should focus on fundamental values.]

With roller-coaster market conditions expected to persist for a while, investors' anxiety and sighs are running deeper.

(Video Editing: Kim Yoon-sung, VJ: Lee Ji-hwan)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.