Overview
- South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI closed down 9.99% on Tuesday, June 23, at 8,203.84 after the Korea Exchange activated a market-wide circuit breaker and halted trading for 20 minutes.
- The rout was led by semiconductor bellwethers, with Samsung Electronics and SK hynix each falling about 12%, losses that wiped billions from the index because those two firms account for a dominant share of KOSPI market value.
- Trading data showed heavy net selling by foreigners and institutions totaling roughly 8.68 trillion won sold, while domestic retail investors were net buyers of about 8.58 trillion won on the day.
- The immediate trigger was a spillover from an overnight U.S. tech decline, which included a sharp drop in SpaceX after bond-sale reports, combined with profit-taking on stretched AI and chip valuations and concern about higher U.S. yields.
- Market watchers say the crash exposes risks from concentrated index weights, record margin debt and newly approved leveraged products, and they will watch upcoming global chip earnings and central bank signals for signs of further contagion.