Retail investors scoop up 1.8 trillion won in Samsung, SK Hynix shares as prices breach key levels

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix both tumbled Monday, closing below the 300,000-won and 2,000,000-won marks respectively. The two stocks fell roughly 10 percent in early trading, triggering a circuit breaker on the Kospi, and attempted a rebound after trading resumed. Neither, however, managed to reclaim its key threshold by the close.

According to Korea Exchange, Samsung Electronics ended the session at 295,500 won, down 33,500 won, or 10.18 percent, from the previous close. The stock opened with a loss of 10.94 percent, meaning it recovered only 0.76 percentage point from its opening low by the end of the day.

Samsung Electronics did briefly climb back above the 300,000-won level during the session, touching 315,500 won at one point. Renewed selling pressure in the afternoon, however, pushed the stock back below that threshold at the close.

SK Hynix also fell 159,000 won, or 7.68 percent, to close at 1,911,000 won. The stock rebounded as high as 2,072,000 won intraday, briefly approaching its previous closing price of around 2,070,000 won, but could not hold those gains and finished in the 1,900,000-won range. SK Hynix recovered more ground than Samsung Electronics: its opening loss stood at 10.34 percent, but the final decline narrowed to 7.68 percent.

The two stocks posted their sharpest pullback since an AI semiconductor rally that had run for the past three months. Samsung Electronics closed Monday 18.03 percent below its intraday high of 360,500 won reached on June 2. SK Hynix was 19.13 percent below its intraday high of 2,363,000 won set on June 1.

The selloff spread to single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds listed late last month. Five spot-based 2x Samsung Electronics ETFs fell as much as roughly 22 percent in early trading, while two futures-based 2x Samsung Electronics ETFs dropped about 24 percent. Spot-based 2x SK Hynix ETFs also slid around 20 percent.

Retail investors net purchased approximately 1.86 trillion won worth of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix shares combined as the two stocks plunged Monday.

Individual investors net bought 1.4475 trillion won in Samsung Electronics, while institutions net sold 1.0921 trillion won and foreign investors net sold 451.2 billion won. Retail buying also flowed into SK Hynix, with individual investors posting net purchases of 412.6 billion won. Foreign investors net sold 313.4 billion won in SK Hynix, and institutions net sold 154.2 billion won.