South Korea officially launched a 24-hour trading mechanism for the Korean won spot foreign exchange market.
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Circuit breakers have become commonplace in the South Korean stock market, with high volatility attracting retail investors, turning trading in South Korean stocks into a "squid game."
According to Mars Finance, on July 7th, the Wall Street Journal published an article analyzing the recent high volatility of the South Korean stock market. The article cited data showing that in the past year, the South Korean KOSPI index fluctuated by more than 2% on 77 separate days. During the same period, the S&P 500 index in the US experienced only five such instances. The KOSPI fluctuated by more than 3% on 44 days, while the S&P 500 never exceeded 3%, and the KOSPI fluctuated by more than 5% on 23 days. The report stated that this volatility has become one of the factors attracting many South Korean retail investors who trade purely for the sake of trading. Maxence Visseau, founder of macro and quantitative hedge fund Arkevium Capital, commented, "Volatility is the key attraction for retail investors seeking excitement." The report also noted that foreign capital outflows exceeded $100 billion (approximately 154 trillion won) in the first half of this year, with $30 billion flowing out in June alone. This trend "could ultimately harm local investors."
Japanese and South Korean stock markets closed lower, with South Korean stocks triggering a second circuit breaker during trading.
PANews reported on July 7th that, according to Jinshi, the Nikkei 225 index closed down 1480.73 points, or 2.12%, at 68256.96 on Tuesday, July 7th. The South Korean KOSPI index closed down 395.41 points, or 4.91%, at 7655.92 on Tuesday, July 7th, having fallen more than 8% intraday, triggering a second circuit breaker. Among individual stocks, SK Hynix closed down 6%, and Samsung Electronics fell nearly 7%.
South Korean beauty and retail stocks led the market gains, and Gate.com continues to expand its investment portfolio in South Korean stocks.
According to ChainCatcher, Gate's market data shows that the South Korean stock market was active today. Manyo Factory, a cosmetics stock, reached $11.60, up 18.43%; Heung Koo Petroleum reached $6.88, up 14.72%; and IT'S HANBUL reached $7.25, up 13.51%, with several popular South Korean stocks leading the market gains. Gate has established a 24/7 trading service system covering the three core markets of US, Hong Kong, and South Korea, supporting over 10,000 US stocks and ETFs, over 1,500 Hong Kong stocks, and over 1,000 South Korean stocks, totaling over 12,500 stocks and ETFs globally. Users can participate in global stock investment through their Gate unified account using USDT, supporting fractional share transactions starting from as low as 0.01 shares, and enjoying stock dividend rights. The platform also supports cross-brokerage transfers for US and Hong Kong stocks, as well as corporate actions such as stock splits and consolidations, further optimizing the stock investment service experience.
South Korean stocks plunge 20%, nearing a bear market; the AI boom faces the awkward situation of "the more disastrous the earnings, the steeper the decline."
According to BlockBeats, on Wednesday afternoon, July 8th, South Korean stocks extended their losses as investors reassessed the outlook for AI demand. The KOSPI index fell by more than 6% at one point, breaking below 7200 points, and has cumulatively fallen by more than 20% from its all-time high last month, poised to enter technical bear market territory. Memory chip maker SK Hynix fell by as much as 5%, and Samsung Electronics fell by 6.9%. The Korea Exchange initiated a temporary trading halt on the KOSPI index, suspending algorithmic trading. South Korean stocks were among the strongest performing markets globally this year, but their performance is highly dependent on SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, amplifying volatility when sector sentiment weakens. Even with Samsung Electronics announcing a 19-fold surge in quarterly profits earlier this week, chip stocks continued to be under pressure. Jordan Klein, a TMT sector expert at Mizuho Securities, stated that investors overreacted to Samsung's preliminary second-quarter results. He believes this sell-off in semiconductor stocks is more a sign of waning momentum than a deterioration in fundamentals. Klein stated that excluding one-off bonus expenses, Samsung's operating profit actually significantly exceeded expectations, with its storage business implied operating margin potentially exceeding 80%. He indicated that Samsung's single-quarter operating profit has already surpassed the total of the past three years, and reacting to Samsung's stock price based solely on preliminary results is "extremely short-sighted." Meanwhile, an AI trading rotation occurred in Asian markets. Hong Kong-listed Chinese stocks rose, with the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index rising as much as 3.4%, the Hang Seng Tech Index rising over 5% intraday, Alibaba rising over 8%, and Tencent rising over 3%. Market analysts believe that funds are flowing from crowded trades focused on AI infrastructure to markets with lower valuations and more value-oriented characteristics. Reuters' report on DeepSeek's self-developed chip and The Information's report on Zhipu AI considering designing its own AI chip further fueled this rotation. (Jinshi)
Japanese and South Korean stocks closed lower, with South Korean stocks falling more than 5%.
According to Gate data, the Nikkei 225 Odaily closed down 1437.91 points, or 2.11%, at 66819.05 on Wednesday, July 8. The South Korean KOSPI index closed down 409.53 points, or 5.35%, at 7246.78 on Wednesday, July 8. The index briefly triggered a temporary trading halt during the session and has now fallen about 20% from its June high, approaching a technical bear market.
Bithumb will launch the Impossible Cloud Network (ICNT) Korean Won trading pair.
According to Mars Finance, on July 7th, Bithumb trading platform will launch the Impossible Cloud Network (ICNT) Korean Won (KRW) trading pair at 17:00 (Korean time) on July 7th, supporting the BASE network. Deposits and withdrawals are expected to open within 2 hours of the announcement. Initially, trading restrictions will be implemented for the new coin, including a ban on buying for the first 5 minutes after opening, and a selling price that cannot be lower than 10% or higher than the reference price for the first 5 minutes. Limit orders will also be supported for approximately 2 hours after launch to ensure market stability.