On June 8, the opening decline of South Korea's KOSPI index swiftly escalated to exceed 8%, activating the first-tier circuit breaker mechanism and halting trading for 20 minutes. Notably, shares of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix both plummeted nearly 10%. The Korea Exchange announced that it would bolster institutional emergency response measures, closely track global market trends, and intensify scrutiny of illicit short-selling activities. Recently, the South Korean stock market has witnessed heightened volatility, marked by frequent trading interruptions. Its structural fragility primarily arises from the high concentration of the stock market in two semiconductor giants. The immediate external catalyst for this panic was the 'Black Friday' in the U.S. stock market on June 5, when the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index suffered its largest single-day decline since March 2020. Analysts from CITIC Securities noted that the U.S. non-farm payrolls data for May, among other factors, were the primary drivers behind the short-term sharp market corrections. Despite a meeting between NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and SK Group executives, which announced a technological collaboration, it could not avert the KOSPI index's plunge. A more profound issue lies in the aggressive leveraging by South Korean retail investors, with the balance of margin loans hitting a record high and the proportion of margin trading doubling. Regarding the AI sector, analysts believe that while the short-term bullish rationale is challenging to reverse, the industry must delve into more high-value monetization avenues. The market is expected to remain highly volatile, and caution should be exercised regarding the risk of mismatched input-output rhythms. In the Chinese market, the Shanghai Composite Index opened down by over 2%, dipping below the 4,000-point threshold, while the Shenzhen Component Index, ChiNext Index, and STAR Board Composite Index all experienced declines before gradually rebounding. The Hong Kong stock market also commenced trading on a lower note.
