A financial data screen at Hana Bank’s dealing room in Seoul shows the Kospi at 6,663.12 and the Kosdaq at 810.39 during trading Tuesday.
A financial data screen at Hana Bank’s dealing room in Seoul shows the Kospi at 6,663.12 and the Kosdaq at 810.39 during trading Tuesday.

South Korea's stock market rally has stalled as chip stocks lose ground, wiping more than 200 trillion won ($147.3 billion) off its combined market capitalization over the past month.

The combined market cap of the benchmark Kospi and the tech-heavy Kosdaq stood at 5,962 trillion won as of noon Tuesday, according to Korea Exchange data. The Kospi market was valued at 5,498 trillion won, while the Kosdaq’s market capitalization came to 459 trillion won.

The combined figure represents a decline of over 200 trillion won from 6,234 trillion won on Aug. 14. The decline was even steeper compared with June 22, when the Kospi was approaching its all-time high.

Market heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have seen their market capitalizations — both of which once exceeded 2,000 trillion won — plunge back into the 1,000 trillion won range, adding to the market's woes.

Samsung Electronics’ market capitalization stood at 1,446.95 trillion won on Tuesday, down over 30 percent from its peak of 2,119.28 trillion won on June 18. SK hynix's market value came to 1,230.14 trillion won, down around 40 percent from its June 22 peak of 2,080.38 trillion won.

Investors across retail and foreign investor groups have been offloading shares amid growing uncertainty over the outlook for the chip sector.

Calls from some AI companies to slow the pace of artificial intelligence model development have also fueled concerns over the sustainability of the AI boom and its implications for chip demand.

According to the Korea Exchange, retail investors net sold 4.32 trillion won worth of Samsung Electronics shares and 6.27 trillion won worth of SK hynix shares between Sept. 1 and Tuesday, offloading roughly 10 trillion won worth of shares in the two stocks alone.

Foreign investors have also added to the selling pressure, net selling 2.83 trillion won worth of Samsung Electronics shares and 4.04 trillion won worth of SK hynix shares over the same period.


silverstar@heraldcorp.com