[Anchor]

The "blue tsunami" in the U.S. midterm elections has shaken our stock market once again. The KOSPI plummeted by 6% today (the 6th), barely managing to defend the 5,000 mark. Having fallen helplessly since the second half of this year, our stock market has plunged an additional 11% in just two days following the U.S. midterm elections. Semiconductor stocks, which account for a large portion of our market, took a direct hit, and trading was temporarily halted in early morning trading.

Our first report comes from reporter Yoo Soo-Hwan.

[Reporter]

The KOSPI plummeted right from the opening bell.

Plunging more than 8% just three minutes into the trading session, a circuit breaker was immediately triggered, causing the index to surrender the 5,000 mark.

This is the first time in nine months since last February that the KOSPI has slipped into the 4,000 range during trading.

It ultimately closed down 6%, bringing the total plunge to 11% over the past two days including yesterday.

This is a direct result of absorbing the impact from the U.S. stock market overnight.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq index plunged 5.5%, and the S&P 500, which tracks 500 major companies, dropped 4.3%.

This is interpreted as the result of fears that regulations on the artificial intelligence industry and data centers will intensify within the U.S. following the Democratic Party's landslide victory, which flared up even more strongly two days after the election.

In particular, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which tracks the stock prices of major semiconductor companies, plummeted by more than 12%, dealing a blow to our semiconductor and AI-related companies.

[Song Jae-kyung / Investment Division Representative, Dimension Investment Advisory: Since the U.S. invests so heavily and makes money through companies like Samsung and SK, the U.S. needs to stabilize first. The U.S. market itself. Therefore, concerns in the U.S. related to AI investment need to be put to rest to a certain extent...]

SK Hynix plummeted by 10% and Samsung Electronics by more than 6%, shrinking their market capitalizations by more than half in four months.

Even Hyundai Motor and Kia, which had gathered expectations for reduced tariffs, turned downward today.

The government has urgently instructed securities firms to reduce the forced liquidation ratio for stocks purchased with borrowed money even if prices fall.

However, it remains to be seen whether this will have the effect of calming investor sentiment, centering around foreign investors.

(Photo: Yonhap News) (Video by: Kim Se-kyung | Video Editing by: Lee Sang-min)