KOSPI Slides 3.26% as Chip Rout, Oil Shock and Rate Fears Converge
South Korea’s KOSPI fell 3.26% as semiconductor shares tumbled amid weaker expectations for AI investment, rising oil prices and mounting interest-rate concerns.
South Korean equities suffered a broad selloff Monday, with the benchmark KOSPI dropping 3.26% and finishing in the 6,600 range after losing the 6,700 level, as renewed doubts over artificial-intelligence investment, higher international oil prices and interest-rate anxiety converged.
Large-cap technology shares bore the brunt of the decline: SK hynix fell 6.4%, SK Square lost 7.9%, and Samsung Electronics dropped more than 4%, making the semiconductor sector a central force behind the index’s retreat.
Selling by major institutional participants added to the pressure, with foreign investors recording more than 3 trillion won in net sales and institutions posting net sales exceeding 1 trillion won.
Retail investors bought nearly 3 trillion won on a net basis, but those purchases were not enough to offset the selling by overseas and institutional investors.
The immediate concern for Korea’s chip-heavy market was a change in expectations surrounding AI spending, after comments from leaders of major technology companies suggesting a slower pace of investment weakened confidence in a continued memory-chip boom.
The concentration of the day’s steepest losses in Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and SK Square showed how quickly a reassessment of the global AI investment cycle can transmit into Korea’s benchmark index.
Energy prices created a second source of strain after international oil prices rose sharply following news of an attack on a Saudi Arabian pipeline, adding an external inflation risk to the pressure already facing Korean equities.
Mirae Asset Securities analyst Seo Sang-young said rising prices for products derived from crude oil could eventually lift core inflation, with the effects emerging in roughly three to six months.
Bond markets supplied the third element of the selloff as government bond yields rose in major economies, including the United States and Britain, while investors turned their attention to the approaching U.S. interest-rate decision.
NH Investment & Securities senior researcher Kim Young-hwan said market participants broadly believed that a failure to raise rates could intensify selling pressure in the bond market.
The combined shock extended beyond the KOSPI’s headline loss, pushing the total market capitalization of South Korean equities below 6,000 trillion won for the first time in six trading sessions.
The verified market picture is therefore one of three linked risks arriving at once—reduced confidence in AI capital spending, an oil-driven inflation threat and uncertainty over global monetary policy—with the direction of oil prices, bond yields and technology investment now central to whether Korea’s semiconductor-led market stabilizes.