As retail investors cut their shares one after another, SK Hynix's disappointing earnings report heightened already uneasy feelings about the AI sector, and the Korean stock market plummeted. South Korea's Kospi Index once fell sharply by 13%, triggering a broken fusing mechanism for the second day in a row, and the decline narrowed to about 6% in the afternoon. The index is expected to set a record for the biggest monthly decline of about 33%. Earlier this year, the index almost entirely relied on the two chip stocks Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Market optimism quickly turned to panic as investors questioned the commercial rationality of the industry's huge investments. Retail investors sold 1.8 trillion won of Kospi's constituent shares, in stark contrast to the trend where they continued to buy on dips during the previous market recovery. As the general market decline subsided, institutional investors' buying gradually increased. Yoon Joonwon, a fund manager at DS Asset Management, said that everyone seemed to be stealing the door. In particular, retail investors are showing this level of sell-off, which is hard to understand. Whether from a technical or emotional standpoint, this is an irrational sale.

As retail investors cut their shares one after another, SK Hynix's disappointing earnings report heightened already uneasy feelings about the AI sector, and the Korean stock market plummeted. South Korea's Kospi Index once fell sharply by 13%, triggering a broken fusing mechanism for the second day in a row, and the decline narrowed to about 6% in the afternoon. The index is expected to set a record for the biggest monthly decline of about 33%. Earlier this year, the index almost entirely relied on the two chip stocks Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Market optimism quickly turned to panic as investors questioned the commercial rationality of the industry's huge investments. Retail investors sold 1.8 trillion won of Kospi's constituent shares, in stark contrast to the trend where they continued to buy on dips during the previous market recovery. As the general market decline subsided, institutional investors' buying gradually increased. Yoon Joonwon, a fund manager at DS Asset Management, said that everyone seemed to be stealing the door. In particular, retail investors are showing this level of sell-off, which is hard to understand. Whether from a technical or emotional standpoint, this is an irrational sale.