Kospi tumbles 7% to 6,200s, retreating to 3-month low; SK hynix drops 10%

The Kospi tumbled more than 7% during trading Tuesday, sliding to the 6,200 level, as sell sidecar circuit breakers were triggered in both the Kospi and Kosdaq markets early in the session.

As of 9:23 a.m., the Kospi stood at 6,263.63, down 7.28% on the day. The last time the index traded in the 6,200 range during a session was around April 20 — roughly three months ago.

The index opened down 355.48 points, or 5.26%, at 6,400.27 before quickly extending its losses.

At around 9:06 a.m., a sharp move in the KOSPI 200 futures index triggered a five-minute suspension of program sell orders on the Kospi market. A similar suspension followed at around 9:14 a.m. on the Kosdaq market.

Foreign and institutional investors were net sellers of 1.12 trillion won ($762 million) and 194.1 billion won, respectively, weighing on the index. Retail investors were the sole net buyers, picking up 1.2 trillion won worth of shares.

In KOSPI 200 futures, foreign investors also held a net selling position of 325.9 billion won.

Overnight on Wall Street, US stocks closed mixed as semiconductor shares weakened. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 262.83 points, or 0.51%, to close at 52,210.08 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.

The S&P 500 edged up 1.20 points, or 0.02%, to finish at 7,413.18. The Nasdaq Composite, however, fell 43.74 points, or 0.18%, to 24,932.08.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 2.23%, while Nvidia tumbled 4.99%. Other major chipmakers also fell across the board — AMD lost 5.17%, Western Digital 4.21%, Micron 2.25% and SanDisk 11.02%.

Seo Sang-young, a managing director at Mirae Asset Securities' WM Innovation Division, said semiconductor stocks fell sharply during the session after reports that a Chinese company would begin supplying domestically developed DUV lithography equipment to major Chinese chipmakers this year, while concerns over Nvidia's circular trading issue resurfaced.

Domestic semiconductor stocks tumbled in the wake of the US chip sector's decline. Samsung Electronics fell 8.66% to 232,000 won, while SK hynix dropped 10.30% to 1.629 million won.

Other large-cap stocks also declined — SK Square fell 10.86%, Samsung Electro-Mechanics 12.00%, Hyundai Motor 6.82% and LG Energy Solution 4.80%.

The Kosdaq was down 5.19% at 725.20 at the same time, having opened 22.73 points, or 2.97%, lower at 742.13 before extending its losses.

On the Kosdaq market, foreign and institutional investors were net sellers of 27.6 billion won and 27.2 billion won, respectively, while retail investors were net buyers of 57.7 billion won.

Among top Kosdaq-listed stocks by market capitalization, Jusung Engineering fell 11.74%, Wonik IPS dropped 13.11%, Rainbow Robotics lost 7.74% and Rinong Industrial declined 8.17%.