South Korea’s KOSPI opened sharply higher on June 24 after the previous session’s 10% crash, but the recovery quickly ran out of steam. SK Hynix shed further ground while Samsung held relatively steady, and the index retreated toward the 8,300 level.

The initial bounce drew in retail and institutional bargain hunters, but sellers returned fast. With Micron Technology’s earnings due after the US close, traders appear unwilling to hold positions.

The Bounce That Didn’t Stick

The KOSPI opened at 8,356.79, up 1.86% from Tuesday’s close of 8,203.84, and briefly extended as high as 8,543.68, a gain of over 4%. That move faded. The index has since pulled back to 8,297, trimming the day’s gain to around 1%.

The divergence between South Korea’s two biggest chipmakers tells a clearer story. Samsung Electronics held relatively firm, trading around 322,500 won, still up on the day, but well off the early 7% surge. SK Hynix reversed course more sharply, falling to 2,467,000 won after earlier trading near 2,653,000 won. That reversal puts SK Hynix back in the red for the session.

The KOSDAQ also opened higher but has given back much of its early advance.

Sellers Return Before Micron

Tuesday’s crash erased weeks of gains in a single session. The KOSPI, which had closed at a record high of 9,114.55 the previous day, finished Tuesday at 8,203.84, down 910.71 points, or 9.99%. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix both slid around 12%. The Korea Exchange activated a circuit breaker at around 2:33 p.m., halting trading for 20 minutes.

Wednesday’s early jump looked like classic post-crash position covering. Retail investors and institutions bought the dip while foreign investors stayed net sellers. Kiwoom Securities researcher Han Ji-young had said the market would open higher on technical buying once investors priced in the US semiconductor selloff — and it did. But holding those gains is proving harder.

“With the view that the sharp drop in semiconductor stocks in the U.S. market has been priced in, Korea’s market will open higher on technical buying after the previous day’s plunge and work to recoup the prior losses.” — Han Ji-young, Kiwoom Securities

SK Hynix’s steeper reversal reflects the stock’s specific vulnerability. The chip stock had overtaken Samsung as South Korea’s most valuable listed company earlier this month, powered by its dominance in High Bandwidth Memory. That premium makes it more exposed when AI chip sentiment turns.

Korea’s failure to secure a place on the MSCI Developed Markets Index watch list drew little market reaction — analysts treated it as an expected outcome after a negative accessibility review last week.

Micron Technology reports earnings after the US close on June 24. The result and its guidance on memory chip demand will set the tone for Samsung, SK Hynix, and Kioxia heading into the rest of the week. A strong Micron print could stabilise sentiment. A miss risks extending Tuesday’s selloff into a second wave.

Source: BeInCrypto