Overview
- The KOSPI plunged about 5.35–5.4 percent on July 8, closing near 7,246.79 and moving more than 20 percent below its June peak to enter conventional bear-market territory.
- Large-cap tech names drove the sell-off with Samsung Electronics down roughly 6.3 percent and SK Hynix off about 5.7 percent as investors reassessed the timing of earnings from heavy AI-related capital spending.
- Trading volume was heavy and volatility spiked, triggering the market’s sidecar mechanism and the index’s sixth circuit breaker this year during intraday swings.
- Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol said the government will step up surveillance of single-stock leveraged semiconductor ETFs after new leveraged products amplified moves in chip shares.
- Capital flows strengthened the Korean won to about 1,498.5 per dollar and international investors were net buyers that day, a shift linked in part to SK Hynix’s planned U.S. share offering and large equity transactions.