SK hynix shares drop 11.06% as KOSPI suffers heavy losses

Shares in SK hynix, the South Korean memory-chip maker, fell 11.06% on Thursday October 15, closing at 1,262,000 won against the previous day’s close of 1,419,000 won. It was the stock’s largest one-day fall since July 28, 2026, when the shares dropped 14.65%.

At the Bank of Korea’s rate for October 15 of 1,344.6 won per US dollar, the closing price is worth about US$938.57.

Circuit breakers on both Korean markets

The drop came during a day of heavy losses across the Korean market. The KOSPI, Korea’s benchmark share index, ended 7.57% lower at 5,554.22, The Korea Herald reported. The index opened 5.59% down and kept sliding through the session, The Korea Herald said. At 1:17 p.m. it stood 8.13% lower at 5,515.76, according to an earlier Korea Herald report.

The losses were steep enough to trigger circuit breakers, automatic pauses in trading, on both the KOSPI and the Kosdaq, Korea’s market for smaller and growth companies, The Korea Herald reported.

Thursday’s fall came two days after the KOSPI dropped more than 5%, The Korea Times reported. The Korea Times said the slide had turned paper profits into losses for many retail investors and described rising fears of forced selling among them.

Samsung Electronics and SK hynix led the slide

Technology shares drove the decline, with Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, which The Korea Times described as chip giants, leading the slide, according to both The Korea Herald and The Korea Times. The Korea Herald’s midday report said both companies were down more than 10%; its later report, published after the close, described them as down roughly 10%. The closing figure for SK hynix was a fall of 11.06%.

The TIGER 200, a Korean exchange-traded fund that tracks the KOSPI 200 index of large companies, fell 8.2% on the day, so SK hynix fell further than that broad measure of large Korean shares.

SK hynix had made no regulatory filing about the day’s move through DART, Korea’s electronic disclosure system, and has not commented on the move.

A 32.44% fall since September 21

The losses have built up over several weeks. Since September 21, the stock has fallen 32.44%.

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Second-quarter profit and a buyback running to November 19

SK hynix’s latest reported results, for the second quarter of 2026 and filed on August 14, showed consolidated operating profit of 60.54 trillion won on revenue of 79.32 trillion won. That operating profit was the highest in at least six quarters, and 557.15% above the same quarter a year earlier.

On August 19, the company filed a decision to repurchase 24,070,000 common shares for 40.0 trillion won between August 20 and November 19, with the stated aim of raising shareholder value by canceling the repurchased shares.

SK hynix is scheduled to hold a conference call on its third-quarter 2026 results on October 28 at 9 a.m. Korea time. The buyback period is set to end on November 19.

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Information only, not investment advice.