Tech & AI
South Korea's top 10 business groups lose about $766 billion of market value in October, led by SK, before SK hynix and Samsung report
SK Group's listed companies have lost 30% since the end of September, ahead of SK hynix earnings on October 28 and Samsung Electronics' final results on October 29.
HedgeWeekly Tech & AI Desk ·
South Korea's 10 largest business groups lost about 1,101 trillion won (roughly $766 billion) of combined stock-market value between the end of September and October 23, the Seoul Economic Daily reported. Their value fell from 4,472.5 trillion won to 3,371.4 trillion won, and the paper put the KOSPI's decline for the month at 18.83%.
SK Group fell the most, losing 30.1%, as worries about whether AI spending will pay off hit its chip stocks. Memory maker SK hynix dropped 28.1%, wiping out about 365 trillion won, and holding company SK Square lost 32.0%. Samsung Group fell 24.3%, including a 19.6% drop in Samsung Electronics. Shipbuilding-heavy HD Hyundai and Hanwha lost 25.6% and 19.3%. LG Group fell only 5.3%, helped by a 7.3% gain in LG Energy Solution on hopes for battery-storage demand at US AI data centres.
The two chipmakers now face a heavy week. The Bank of Korea publishes its first estimate of third-quarter GDP on October 27, SK hynix reports on October 28 and Samsung Electronics gives final results on October 29. The market expects SK hynix to report about 98 trillion won of revenue and 77 trillion won of operating profit, up from 60.5 trillion won in the second quarter. Samsung's preliminary figures showed 107.4 trillion won of third-quarter operating profit.
Why it matters: The two companies make most of the world's high-bandwidth memory, the stacked memory chips that sit next to AI processors, so their results and outlooks are a direct read on demand for AI hardware. Their shares have fallen sharply even as profits hit records, which means the market is pricing in a peak. Investors will watch comments on memory prices, 2027 orders and AI customers' spending plans. The same week brings results from US megacaps and rate decisions from the Fed, ECB and Bank of Japan.