South Korea’s KOSPI Extends Losses to 7% as Chip Shares Slide

South Korea’s KOSPI extended its decline to 7% on Oct. 15, deepening a sharp move in Asian equities. SK Hynix shares fell 10%, while Samsung Electronics shares dropped about 8%, giving investors measures of the slide in the broad index and two individual stocks.

The Korean market had opened down more than 5%, and the KOSPI’s loss later widened to 7%. The Korea Exchange also activated a sidecar that halted program selling during the decline. Those developments put the index drop alongside a trading-control action, while the share declines show losses also reached the two companies named in the market update.

For U.S. readers tracking Asian markets, the KOSPI figure describes the move in the wider South Korean stock market, while the SK Hynix and Samsung figures refer to company shares. SK Hynix’s 10% drop was the largest of the three reported declines; Samsung’s fall was about 8%, and the KOSPI’s was 7%. Together, the figures outline the scale of the session’s losses across the index and the two stocks.