South Korea Stock Crash: Kospi Drops 10.8% as China Chip Fears Ignite
One single report was all it took. On July 28, 2026, news that China had begun mass production of homegrown deep ultraviolet chipmaking tools sent South Korea’s stock market into one of its sharpest single-day collapses in recent memory — a South Korea stock crash that wiped out billions in market value and forced repeated trading halts on the Kospi before the session even closed.
Key takeaways
- South Korea’s Kospi index fell 10.8% to 6,023.66 on July 28, 2026 — its weakest close since April — with trading halted multiple times due to the speed of the decline.
- Samsung Electronics shed 13.4% and SK Hynix dropped 14.7%, with SK Hynix’s U.S.-listed shares closing at $143, below its IPO price of $149.
- China’s mass production of DUV chipmaking tools, reported by The Information, triggered the sell-off by raising fears of accelerating competition in the global semiconductor industry.
- Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT debuted with a 466% surge on the Shanghai exchange before pulling back 4% the following session.
- U.S. chipmakers including Nvidia, AMD, and Micron Technology also declined, while profit-taking on AI-related stocks added to the broader pressure.
Sharp Decline in South Korea’s Kospi Index Amid Chip Stock Crash
The Kospi’s 10.8% drop to 6,023.66 ranks among the largest single-session moves the index has recorded in years. The decline was so rapid that circuit breakers triggered multiple trading halts throughout the day — a mechanism designed to slow panic selling when markets move too fast for orderly trading to function.
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