Amid general chipmaker bloodbath, SK Hynix and Samsung, which make up half of the index, crashed even more.
By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.
The South Korean KOSPI Composite Index crashed 10.8% today (July 28), as shares of Korea’s two big chipmakers, SK Hynix and Samsung, which make up about half of the KOSPI, plunged even more amid the general chipmaker bloodbath.
Since the peak on June 22, 2026, in just 25 trading days, the KOSPI has now plunged by 34%, interrupted only by violent sucker rallies.
In the morning local time, as the KOSPI plunged through the -5% line amid margin calls, forced selling, short-selling, and desperation, Korea Exchange activated a sell-side sidecar, which halted program selling for five minutes. But that didn’t accomplish much.
When the market crashed through the -8% line, Korea Exchange activated a first-stage circuit breaker, which halted all trading across the entire stock market for 20 minutes. But that didn’t accomplish much either, and shares continued to plunge.
But the KOSPI had spiked by 300% from April 2025 to June 2026, in a phenomenal display of consensual hallucination, having replaced cryptos as favorite get-rich-quick gambling tokens, or whatever.
And the 34% plunge in 25 days only took the index back to where it had been on April 15 this year. So only about 9 weeks of gains evaporated.
To unwind an entire year of gains, the KOSPI would have to drop a total of 71% from the peak in June. The Nasdaq during the US Dotcom Bust crashed by 78% over a period of 2.5 years. So it’s doable.
The two big Korean chipmakers, which together account for about half of the KOSPI, and which have become crypto-like gambling tokens, plunged in near-lockstep in Korean trading:
- SK Hynix: -14.4% today and -48% from the peak in June.
- Samsung Electronics: -13.6% today; -41% from peak in June.
Now everyone is waiting for the dip-buyers to jump in and trigger another sucker rally.
The plight of the KOSPI dragged down another red-hot market, the Nikkei 225 Index, which plunged nearly 4% today.
In the US, the semiconductor rout lags the rout in South Korea, but it has still been painful. The PHLX Semiconductor Index [SOX] has dropped by 21% from its peak on June 21, after a gigantic spike.
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Wow! another gleeful blog when the market tanks but never a gleeful article as the markets and stocks start their runs up and through 100s of % gains. Another no value article from Wolfy.