On July 28, iShares MSCI South Korea ETF fell 5.92% in regular trading, trading at $149.9/share, with turnover of $704 million.

On the news front, escalating doubts over AI infrastructure spending sustainability triggered a historic sell-off in Korean equities. The KOSPI index plunged 10.84% on the day, triggering circuit breakers three times and marking its largest single-day decline in nearly a quarter. Heavyweight stocks SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics collapsed 14.65% and 13.39% respectively, with the two companies accounting for over 50% of KOSPI weighting, effectively turning the Korean market into a semiconductor index.

The sell-off was amplified by Korean retail investors who had heavily leveraged chip stock positions via CFDs. As prices declined, margin calls and forced liquidations created capitulation-style selling. Korean financial regulators are now considering additional measures including personal investment caps to curb leveraged speculation. Institutional analysts noted this correction is driven by sentiment deterioration rather than fundamental damage to the memory industry.

The fund generally invests at least 80% of its assets in the component securities of its underlying index, designed to measure the performance of the large- and mid-capitalization segments of the equity market in Korea.

(The above content is based on publicly available market information, generated by a program or algorithm, and is intended solely as a stock movement alert. It does not constitute investment advice or a basis for trading decisions.)