Korean stocks open lower following Wall Street selloff
SK hynix scraps Solidigm US listing plan
Kosdaq also falls, dropping over 2% at open
![The won-dollar exchange rate, Kospi and Kosdaq indexes are displayed on a screen at the Hana Bank dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Friday. [Yonhap]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/10/23/rcv.YNA.20261023.PYH2026102302710001300_P1.jpg)
Growing skepticism over AI investment sent South Korean stocks sharply lower Friday, with both the Kospi and Kosdaq falling more than 2% at the open.
By 9:20 a.m., the Kospi had dropped 189.41 points, or 3.06%, to 5,364.36, after opening down 130.60 points, or 2.36%, at 5,403.17.
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix — the top two stocks by market capitalization — were each down around 3%. Samsung Electronics fell 3.96% to 206,000 won ($155), while SK hynix slid 2.62% to 1,191,000 won. The declines tracked an overnight selloff on Wall Street that was concentrated in technology stocks.
SK hynix disclosed before the regular session opened that it had halted its review of a US listing for Solidigm, a subsidiary that had weighed on the company's share price. The announcement was not enough to reverse the decline, though SK hynix's losses were smaller than those of Samsung Electronics.
Shareholders had long worried that a Solidigm listing would trigger a holding-company discount that would erode SK hynix's value. Solidigm was established after SK hynix acquired Intel's NAND flash and solid-state drive business in 2021. SK hynix holds a 100% stake in Solidigm through its US intermediate holding company, AI Company.
Other major decliners included Samsung Electronics preferred shares (-3.29%), SK Square (-2.40%), LG Energy Solution (-2.82%) and Samsung Electro-Mechanics (-6.72%).
On the Kospi, retail and foreign investors were net sellers of 12.1 billion won and 181.9 billion won, respectively, while institutions were net buyers of 188.7 billion won.
Wall Street also fell overnight as earnings reports from major technology companies, including Meta, intensified concerns about the enormous cost of AI investment and whether returns would justify the spending, sharply dampening investor sentiment.
The S&P 500 closed down 93.74 points, or 1.21%, at 7,663.43, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite tumbled 694.00 points, or 2.60%, to 26,008.86 — its steepest single-day drop since June.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average bucked the trend, edging up 11.89 points, or 0.02%, to close at 52,867.98.
Meta had reported third-quarter earnings that beat market expectations on Tuesday (local time), but said it planned to issue a new class of non-voting shares to fund its expanding AI investment. Meta's stock tumbled about 7% that day.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index also fell 6.7%, dragged down by Nvidia (-4.4%) and Micron (-6.3%), among others.
SpaceX, which had announced its first quarterly profit on Oct. 20, dropped 9.1%, and Tesla fell 3.1% on disappointing earnings. The selloff spread beyond the biggest technology names — Alphabet (-3.2%) and Amazon (-4.6%) — to data center-related companies as well.
The Kosdaq opened down 15.78 points, or 2.07%, at 748.32, and had since extended losses to 738.58, down 25.52 points, or 3.34%, from the previous session.
Most large-cap Kosdaq stocks were also in the red, including Alteogen (-1.52%), Ecopro (-5.57%), Ecopro BM (-6.01%), Jusung Engineering (-7.07%) and Rainbow Robotics (-4.79%). Retail and institutional investors were net sellers of 15.2 billion won and 12.9 billion won, respectively, while foreign investors were net buyers of 31.8 billion won.
"Meta's credit default swap premium surged to a record high while credit risks at neo-cloud companies persisted, concentrating selling pressure on AI-related stocks including semiconductors," said Seo Sang-young, a managing director at Mirae Asset Securities. "Hedge fund short-selling leverage approaching a five-year high also amplified the decline in technology stocks by adding to supply-demand pressure," he added.
jiyun@heraldcorp.com
