When big rises and falls become commonplace, the Korean stock market gradually becomes "meme-ified"

ME News, on June 24 (UTC+8), fluctuations in South Korea’s benchmark stock index have reached extreme levels, so much so that investors and analysts are comparing the market’s violent intraday swings to the frenzy of “meme stocks.” Although, given that the Kospi index is supported by strong earnings from the world’s leading chip manufacturers, this comparison may sound somewhat exaggerated at first glance, it is not without basis.

Retail investors’ interest is steadily rising: this year, the Kospi index has seen 20 trading days in which the daily closing gain or loss reached at least 5%, whereas in all of 2025 there were only 2 such days. Samsung Electronics has already had 8 trading days this year with a gain or loss of 10% or more, compared with 0 last year; SK Hynix has had 11 such days this year, compared with 2 in 2025. This brings to mind the scenes when stocks such as GameStop and Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) were wildly chased by retail investors.

One major driver behind the surge in volatility is retail investors’ frenzied buying of leveraged ETFs on individual stocks. In addition, the growing dominance of the two major heavyweight stocks mentioned above is also intensifying the volatility.

According to Goldman Sachs, a 5% volatility move in the South Korean stock market could trigger approximately $4.7 billion in ETF rebalancing fund inflows, because options traders need to adjust their risk exposure. This scale is roughly one-eighth of the normal trading volume of the Korean stock market on a typical trading day. (Jin10) (Source: ODAILY)