QUICK SPARK: South Korea’s KOSPI Logs Worst Week Since 2008’s Lehman Brothers Collapse
Piero Cingari 2 weeks ago
TechETFsEmerging Market ETFsEcon #sTop StoriesAsiaLarge Cap
South Korea’s KOSPI fell 14.46% this week, its worst week since October 2008, as SK Hynix and Samsung sank on AI spending fears.
Five months ago, South Korea had the hottest stock market in the world. This week, it had its worst week in almost two decades.
The KOSPI index fell 14.46% for the week. That was its steepest weekly drop since October 2008, when the index lost 20.5% in the panic that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Even the COVID-19 crash in March 2020 never produced a weekly loss this large.
The Selloff Hit Hardest on Thursday
The index fell 7.57% that day, and a circuit breaker paused trading for 20 minutes.
SK Hynix Inc. (NASDAQ:SKHY) ended the week down 24.3%, and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (OTC:SSNLF) fell 17.8%, both logging the worst weekly drop since October 2008.
The KOSPI now sits 37.8% below its record close of 9,114.55, though it is still up 34.5% in 2026.
The iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (NYSE:EWY) was down more than 13% for the week in Friday trading.
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