[Anchor]

The KOSPI, which had barely managed to hold the 6,000 line, plummeted more than 9% during the session, sliding down to the 5,500 range. Falling for the seventh consecutive trading day, it is experiencing its longest losing streak in two years. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the twin pillars of the semiconductor sector, collapsed powerlessly again today (October 15).

For our first report, here is Lee Tae-gwon.

[Reporter]

The KOSPI has regressed to levels seen half a year ago.

Expanding its losses right after the market opened, it plunged more than 8%, triggering a circuit breaker that halted trading for 20 minutes.

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

This marks the lowest closing level since April 7.

Semiconductor heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix crashed by 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 days.

The KOSPI has fallen for seven straight sessions, marking the 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 the return on investment in AI infrastructure surfaced once more. Furthermore, as the U.S. consumer price inflation rate for last month exceeded market expectations by 0.1 percentage points, concerns rose that the possibility of additional interest rate hikes has grown.

[Jung Yong-taek / Analyst, IBK Securities: There are concerns that rising interest rates could act as a stumbling block to future AI investments or stock investments, and to sustain current investments, the scale of profits would need to snowball at a much faster pace...]

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

[Kim Jae-seung / Analyst, Hyundai Motor Securities: Due to unfavorable macroeconomic environments, we are seeing a tendency to avoid emerging market equities altogether. Ultimately, investors seem to consider investing within the U.S. to be safer...]

In particular, compared to Taiwan, South Korea has a higher dependency on the memory business, and Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix still account for 47% of the domestic stock market, resulting in a recurring pattern where the market shakes more violently whenever adverse factors emerge.

(Cameraperson: Seol Chi-hwan, Video Editor: Lee Seung-jin, VJ: Jeong Han-wook, Design: Kim Ye-ji)