South Korea’s KOSPI Cuts Losses After More Than 8.5% Drop, Still Down 5%

At 9:21 p.m. ET Thursday (02:21 UTC Friday), South Korea’s KOSPI was down 5%, after its decline earlier exceeded 8.5%. The index had pared its loss by more than 3.5 percentage points, but remained lower at the later reading.

In percentage-point terms, the move from more than 8.5% down to 5% down marks a partial recovery from the earlier decline. It does not change the latest figure: the KOSPI was still down 5% at the reported time.

SK Hynix shares were down 6.9% at the same snapshot, while Samsung Electronics shares were down 4.2%. SK Hynix’s decline was 1.9 percentage points deeper than the index’s, while Samsung’s was 0.8 points narrower. The gap between the companies’ declines was 2.7 percentage points.

The KOSPI and both stocks were in negative territory, with the companies posting separate losses alongside the index’s reduced decline. All three readings were negative at the time captured.