Articles by Mia Park
Page 3 of 4
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are close to half the Kospi. They fell almost 9% on Monday and took the index down 5.12%, while Korea's smaller companies rose.
The Kospi closed down 5.12% on August 3, giving back a third of the record rise it had on July 31. Foreign and institutional investors net sold 4.3814 trillion won ($3.06 billion USD) of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix on the day, and almost nothing else. The Kosdaq rose 2.44% in the same session.
Korea's new rule pushed investors out of Samsung and SK Hynix leverage funds. They moved 500 billion won into a bet against the whole index instead.
Korea's 30 million won cash rule covers single-stock leverage products only. On its first day investors net sold over 1 trillion won of those and net bought about 500 billion won of index inverse funds the rule does not touch, on the day the Kospi rose a record 17.91%.
Semiconductors made up 41.5% of everything South Korea exported in July. It was the country's second-biggest export month on record. So why did its stock market fall 22%?
South Korea exported $98.89 billion of goods in July, its second-biggest month ever, with semiconductors alone at $41.01 billion. The same month, the Kospi fell 22.19%, the largest monthly drop of any major world index.
Korea's new $21,000 cash rule cut trading in its 2x Samsung and SK Hynix funds by 76% in one day. The Kospi still rose a record 17.91%, and the real test comes Monday in Seoul.
Korea now requires about $21,000 in cash before an investor can buy the 2x funds on Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Trading in them fell 76% on the rule's first day, while the Kospi rose a record 17.91% in the same session. Seoul's Monday open is the first clean test of whether the rule calms the market.
BTS went back on tour and HYBE had the biggest quarter in K-pop history. The stock fell 16 percent the same day.
BTS went back on tour in April, and HYBE has just posted the first quarter in K-pop history above 1 trillion won ($702M USD). Revenue more than doubled, operating profit rose 159 percent, and both came in well above what analysts had asked for. The stock fell 16.09 percent the same afternoon, its worst day since 2022.
Heavy leverage has South Korea's investors betting against their own market. One put everything into SK Hynix falling, on the day it rose 30%.
Korea gave its investors funds that pay double in a day, and the people using them have started calling it baccarat. One asked a message board for the courage to bet everything against Samsung on Thursday. Another went all in against SK Hynix on Friday, hours after it closed limit up.
Korea locked 94% of stock accounts out of leverage funds on Friday morning. By the close SK Hynix was limit up and those funds had returned 60%.
Korea's individual investors were not betting against this market. Through the crash they were buying the 2x leverage funds, and a new 30 million won cash rule shut most of them out on the exact morning those funds returned 60%.
Korean investors spent the worst month in Kospi history rescuing a crab stick maker, a women's underwear brand and a pen company
Korea Exchange raised the Kospi delisting floor on July 1 and a batch of old domestic companies fell under it. Retail investors organized to buy them back over the line. For four sessions the best performers among all 944 Kospi companies were a kitchen furniture maker, an underwear brand, a pen company and a crab stick producer.
Chey Tae-won ran SK Hynix for 14 years without owning a share. With the stock down 56%, he bought 4.79 billion won of it.
Chey Tae-won has run SK Hynix since 2012 without ever owning a share of it. On July 30 he bought 3,620 of them for about 4.79 billion won ($3.33 million), stopping just under the 5 billion won line that would have forced him to announce it 30 days early.
Korea's small investors absorbed the whole crash. On Thursday they gave up and sold 1.43 trillion won.
For two weeks Korea's individual investors bought whatever foreign funds sold. On July 30 the roles reversed. Foreigners came back for the first time in five sessions, retail sold 1.43 trillion won into them, and forced liquidations at brokerages rose 340% in a single day.
Samsung posted its best quarter ever. Seoul was up 5.54% on it, then gave the whole thing back.
Samsung's stock fell 5.23 percent on July 29, a day before its own confirmed earnings even came out. When the record numbers landed Thursday, the Kospi rose as much as 5.54 percent, then gave all of it back and closed lower.
Korean investors sent funeral wreaths to the National Assembly. Forced selling is up 596% this year (July 29, 2026)
An investor group had about 30 funeral wreaths delivered to Korea's National Assembly on July 29, carrying messages asking whether investor protection is only words. Forced liquidations at Korea's 10 largest brokerages rose 596% from January to June, and the fastest increase of all was among investors 70 and older.
Seoul halted its stock market two days in a row. The rules written to stop it start Friday (July 29, 2026)
The Kospi closed Wednesday at 5,663.24, down 5.98%, after trading 12.63% lower at its worst point, and both Korean markets halted for a second straight day, which has never happened before. Deputy Prime Minister Koo Yun-chul apologized for the single stock leveraged ETFs blamed for the size of the move, then called the four financial chiefs in at 6 p.m. The cash deposit rule meant to cool those funds does not take effect until Friday.
Nvidia (NVDA) will own more of Korean internet company Naver than its founder does
Naver, the Korean company that runs the country's main search engine and its biggest shopping platform, told the Korea Exchange on Monday it will sell 1.4809 trillion won of new shares to Nvidia, near $1.01 billion. That makes Nvidia the third largest shareholder at about 4.5%, ahead of founder Lee Hae-jin at 3.8%.
Korea signed $950 billion in AI deals, then foreign investors sold 2.9 trillion won of SK Hynix and Samsung (July 27, 2026)
Monday was the first Seoul session after Korean companies signed about $950 billion of AI agreements in San Francisco. Kospi opened 1.7% higher, then fell almost 2% when China's CXMT closed its Shanghai debut up 465.82%. Foreign investors sold a net 2.9039 trillion won of Kospi stocks, and the two they sold most were SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics.
SK Hynix (SKHY) reports earnings Wednesday. Even the lowest forecast beats what it earned in all of 2025.
Everyone who follows SK Hynix agrees the April to June quarter was the best in company history. They disagree by about 16% on how good. The lowest forecast on the board still has the company making more money in three months than it made in all of 2025.
Samsung just signed a $200 billion deal with Broadcom (AVGO), a 32-year TSMC (TSM) customer.
Samsung Electronics signed a memorandum with Broadcom on July 24 covering more than $200 billion of work over five years, through 2030. Broadcom has had TSMC make its chips since 1994, and about 95% of the wafers it outsourced last year came from there. Samsung's foundry holds 6.5% of the world market against TSMC's 72%, and Seoul had closed for the week before any of it was announced.
Korea's stock market has been forced to pause 41 times this year. All of 2008 had 26.
Kospi set off 41 sidecars between January 2 and July 24, more than the 26 it set off in all of 2008 and far more than the 3 it managed in all of last year. Circuit breakers have fired 7 times in 2026 against 13 in the market's entire history since 2000. Most Korean analysts blame the Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix leverage ETFs that listed in May, but one state research institute says that is the wrong target.
A record 944 billion won ($644M USD) divorce ruling lifted SK Telecom as SK Hynix fell 8.34% (July 24, 2026)
A Seoul court ordered SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won to pay Roh So-young 944 billion won ($644M USD), the largest property division in Korean history. SK Telecom closed up 0.50% on a day Kospi fell 5.72%, because a smaller award means he is less likely to sell SK Inc stock and more likely to lean on subsidiary dividends. SK Hynix, three steps down the same ownership chain, fell 8.34%.
Kospi fell 5.72% today. Chinese financial media says the selloff crossed into China and the US too. (July 24, 2026)
Kospi fell 5.72% Friday as Middle East tension pushed oil above $100 a barrel and traders priced in a real chance the Fed raises rates instead of cutting them. A Chinese financial outlet says Korea's leverage ETF unwind is now dragging Chinese and US chip stocks down with it.
SK Hynix (SKHY) reports July 29, and it will most likely be the best quarter the company has ever had
SK Hynix (SKHY) reports second quarter earnings on July 29, and analysts think it will most likely be the best quarter in company history. Profit is expected to be almost six times what it was a year ago, with a profit margin that would be a new record. The demand is coming from artificial intelligence, and it now reaches more than just one kind of chip.
Kospi rose 4.4% today. Alphabet's (GOOG) bigger spending plan is why. (July 23, 2026)
Kospi rose 4.4% Thursday, its third straight day of gains and its first close back above 7,000 in five trading days. Alphabet raised its own AI spending plans, easing fears that Korea's memory chip demand was peaking, and foreign investors piled into SK Hynix in particular.
Korean overdraft debt grows 4.5 times faster on Kospi crash days than rally days
A Seoul Economic Daily analysis of five major Korean banks found overdraft account balances grew 4.5 times faster on days Kospi fell than on days it rose, as retail investors borrowed to buy the dip during this summer's volatility.
Korea's SK Hynix opened up almost 9% on a global chip rally. It closed the day lower.
Korea's SK Hynix opened up almost 9% on a global chip rally, then closed down 0.33%. Kospi gave back most of a 6.20% intraday gain, closing up just 0.74% after triggering its second buy-side sidecar in two trading days.