“I want to cry”, “I’m about to lose my salary”… Ants panic due to stock market crash, including Samchunix

As soon as the market opened, KOSPI plummeted below the 5,000 mark, sending individual investors (ants) into a panic.

In particular, Samsung Electronics [005930] and SK Hynix [000660], the 'two top' domestic stock market and the so-called 'national people', are showing a decline rate of around 10%, and complaints are pouring in that it is now difficult to even hold on.

On the 6th, KOSPI plunged by more than 8%, collapsing 5,000 pi (KOSPI 5,000) in just about 3 minutes after the market opened, and a circuit breaker was activated.

After the circuit breaker was lifted, a temporary suspension of program selling bids (selling sidecar) was activated.

As of 9:53 a.m., KOSPI fell 7.74% to 4,967.05. Samsung Electronics is trading at 184,300 won, down 8.54%, and SK Hynix is ​​trading at 1,131,000 won, down 10.52%.

Individual investors who own Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are not only embarrassed but devastated as the slump continued the previous day.

According to KOSCOM CHECK, in the past month (October 6 to November 5), individuals net purchased KRW 5.8323 trillion of Samsung Electronics and KRW 3.3601 trillion of SK Hynix. It is the first and second largest amount among domestic listed stocks, including exchange traded funds (ETFs).

Even the day before, when the KOSPI fell 5.28%, Samsung Electronics was net purchased for 1.2277 trillion won and SK Hynix for 890.2 billion won. On the 5th, Samsung Electronics closed regular trading at 201,500 won, down 7.57%, and SK Hynix closed at 1,264,000 won, down 9.46%.

The online securities community has become a ‘ground for criticism’ for ants.

An investor who owns Samsung Electronics expressed his dismay, saying, “I wonder if a project to make the entire nation a beggar has begun.” Another investor appealed, "I don't even want the average price I bought. I hope it stays at least around 200,000 won."

One SK Hynix investor laughed, saying, "I thought yesterday was the bottom. I put it on sale at -3% just in case, and it sold right away."

There were also stories like “If you listen to the experts and hold on, your salary will disappear”, “I want to cry in the military. Two months’ worth of salary is gone”, and “We really need to stick to the 1.1 million won line.”

Some investors expressed their anger, saying, "Only a few shareholders are losing money," referring to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix paying large performance bonuses to their employees.

The plunge in domestic growth is due to growing concerns that regulations related to the artificial intelligence (AI) industry may be strengthened following the Democratic Party's landslide victory in the U.S. midterm elections.

On the 5th (local time), the New York stock market recorded its largest drop since April of last year, when the Nasdaq Composite Index and the Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 Index were shocked by U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of mutual tariffs.

The Nasdaq Composite Index closed at 24,315.00, down 1,421.52 points (5.52%) from the previous day, and the Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 Index closed at 7,353.73, down 334.89 points (4.36%). The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended trading at 51,523.06, down 1,833.06 points (3.44%) from the previous day.

Experts believe that the decline is excessive, but advise to expand the investment scope to stocks that are relatively less affected by the uncertainty caused by the US blue wave for the time being.

Jiyoung Han, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, said, "The domestic stock market is currently in a phase where traditional fundamentals such as profit and valuation are not reflected in stock prices." He added, "There may be a distribution of supply and demand in industries such as banks and holdings with effective shareholder return momentum, construction and transportation with a maintained foreign net purchase trend, and biotechnology due to the easing of interest rate burden."