$BTC South Korean stocks catch up with losses of over 4%, storage stocks continue to slide

The Korean KOSPI sharply caught up with losses of over 4%. Samsung and SK Hynix led the declines in the broader market. The storage sector has remained weak for multiple consecutive days, and this round of correction is a liquidity “panic selling” move triggered by a convergence of multiple negative factors. The immediate trigger was a collective overnight plunge in the U.S. storage stocks: SK Hynix’s ADR and Micron both fell sharply, and pessimistic sentiment rapidly spread to Asia-Pacific. This was compounded by the diversion of local capital from SK Hynix’s U.S. listing, as institutions cashed in the substantial profits from the first half’s AI storage rally at high levels.
Two deeper core drivers: First, deleveraging and risk reduction in the Korean market. Regulatory tightening has raised the threshold for leveraged ETFs tied to storage individual stocks, and central bank rate hikes have increased financing costs. This forced liquidations for many leveraged accounts, creating a negative feedback loop of “decline — forced selling.” Samsung and Hynix together account for more than half of the market value in South Korea’s stock market, so their concentration amplifies index volatility. Second, diverging industry expectations have intensified. The market has begun pricing in synchronized capacity expansions by Samsung, Hynix, and Micron. Concerns are growing about a general storage supply surplus after 2027. Meanwhile, investors also question whether cloud providers’ capex for compute power is slowing at the margin, and the HBM contract pricing model is further limiting upside in earnings.
However, it’s important to distinguish: the drop is a valuation and liquidity adjustment, not a collapse of the fundamentals for high-end storage. The logic behind HBM long-term shortages remains unchanged. In the short term, there is still room for more selling pressure to be released. Global semiconductor sector volatility is increasing, and it is simultaneously weighing on sentiment across China’s storage chain. Over the medium to long term, only advanced packaging and domestic substitution segments have structural opportunities.
(Industry views only—does not constitute investment advice)