[Anchor]

The so-called blue tsunami, in which the Democratic Party secured control of both the House and the Senate in the U.S. midterm elections, has battered the KOSPI. Driven by concerns over tightened regulations on AI data centers, the index collapsed below the 5,300 mark.

Reporter Kwon Ran has the details.

[Reporter]

The KOSPI plummeted more than 5%, sinking back into the 5,300 range.

Starting the trading session down nearly 2% right from the opening bell, the KOSPI expanded its losses, at one point plunging over 6%.

As a flood of sell orders poured in, a sell sidecar was triggered at 10:16 AM, temporarily suspending program sell orders for five minutes.

Although it attempted a rebound afterward, it failed to overcome the selling pressure.

Dragging down the stock market today (the 5th) were the two semiconductor giants.

Samsung Electronics dropped as low as 199,800 won during intraday trading, breaking below the 200,000-won threshold for the first time since July 29.

It later staged a modest rebound to barely close at 201,500 won.

SK Hynix also slumped more than 10% intraday before finishing the session at 1,264,000 won.

Foreign investors, maintaining a net selling stance for the fifth consecutive trading day, dumped approximately 3.3 trillion won worth of shares today alone, adding to the market downturn.

While retail and institutional investors stepped up to defend the market by purchasing about 2.2 trillion won and 800 billion won worth of shares, respectively, it was not enough to absorb the overwhelming volume of selling.

The KOSDAQ was not spared from the shock either.

The index briefly fell below the 700 line during the session, prompting a sell sidecar to be issued following the KOSPI.

This marks the first time in 15 trading sessions—since October 15—that sell sidecars have been triggered in both the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets simultaneously.

The shock hitting our stock market today stems from the U.S. midterm election results.

With the Democratic Party's victory, concerns that regulations on the construction of AI data centers will be tightened appear to have dealt a direct blow to the market.

(Video by Park Ji-in)