South Korea's KOSPI crashes 8% despite Samsung's record profit

The South Korean stock market is in freefall. The KOSPI index plunges by 8%, triggering a market-wide trading halt, while some $170 billion in market value evaporates. Notably, Samsung leads the sell-off despite posting a new quarterly profit record, driven by the AI boom.

Samsung Posts Record Profit but Shares Plunge Deep

Samsung reports an operating profit of 89.4 trillion won, around $58 billion, for the past quarter. That is an absolute record, thanks to soaring demand for AI chips. Despite this exceptional result, investors react anything but positively: Samsung’s share price drops by more than 10% on the day itself.

Investors appear to doubt whether this growth level is sustainable. The question on the market is whether the AI-driven chip cycle will last long enough to justify current valuations. That sentiment translates directly into massive selling, despite the strong figures.

KOSPI in Freefall and Trading Halted

The sell-off is not limited to Samsung alone. The chip giant’s heavy losses drag down other major KOSPI stocks as well. The index as a whole loses 8%, triggering an automatic market-wide trading halt to prevent further panic selling.

In total, $170 billion in market capitalisation vanishes from the South Korean exchange. The KOSPI heatmap shows an almost entirely red picture, with losses spread across nearly all sectors. Besides Samsung, other big names such as SK Hynix (000660) also see declines of more than 4%.

The situation shows how vulnerable markets are to sentiment surrounding technology and AI, even when underlying results are strong on paper. Investors increasingly price in future expectations, and once those become doubtful, the selling waves follow quickly.