South Korea's Kospi stock market swings wildly on AI sell-off

The Kospi swung dramatically this week, plunging about 700 points, or 8%, at Monday's open before recovering all those losses on Tuesday. It closed at 8,096 points on Tuesday, up 8.2% for the day and roughly 50 points above Monday's opening price. "A day with a rise or fall of less than 5% in the Kospi has become rare — a sign of just how volatile this market has become," Ipek Ozkardeskaya wrote in a morning email.

Two tech giants dominate the market: Samsung and SK Hynix. Both passed market capitalizations of more than $1 trillion in recent weeks and together account for around half of the index's total market value. On Monday SK Hynix lost more than 10% and Samsung fell about 8%; on Tuesday Hynix gained 15% while Samsung rose 9%.

Their fortunes are closely tied to US AI firms such as Nvidia and Google, and SK Hynix as a chipmaker is especially vulnerable to moves in the US market.

South Korea

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