Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix tumbled nearly 9% on Monday, as a wave of profit-taking followed the record-setting gains both chipmakers posted on Friday.
Samsung Electronics closed down 8.76% at 239,500 won ($167), according to Korea Exchange data.
SK Hynix ended the session down 8.79% at 1.57 million won.
SK Hynix opened down 4.42% at 1.64 million won before sliding as far as 9.08% to 1.56 million won during trading.
Both stocks had closed the previous session on Friday at all-time high daily gains. SK Hynix hit the upper price limit — rising 29.95% — for the first time since 2009, a span of 17 years.
Samsung Electronics also approached its daily limit during trading before finishing up 26.81% at 262,500 won.
Market watchers attributed Monday's sharp pullback to a flood of short-term profit-taking that followed the previous session's surge.
"Because both share prices rose so sharply in a single day, foreign investors unloaded profit-taking positions in these two stocks today, triggering a reversal," said Lee Gyeong-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities.
Selling by foreign and institutional investors added to the downward pressure. Foreign investors net sold SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics worth 1.77 trillion won and 952.1 billion won, respectively — making the two stocks the top and second-largest targets of foreign net selling for the session.
Institutional investors also net sold Samsung Electronics worth 1.22 trillion won and SK Hynix worth 450 billion won.
moon@heraldcorp.com
