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Screens at Hana Bank's main dealing room in Jung District, Seoul, display the KOSPI and other market indicators on Nov. 6, 2026. A circuit breaker was triggered after the KOSPI plunged more than 8% in early trading. /Yonhap

Shares of major South Korean semiconductor companies plunged Friday, with Samsung Electronics falling below the 200,000-won mark during trading, deepening losses in single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking the chipmakers. After some SK Hynix leveraged ETFs tumbled more than 19% in a single session Thursday, related products again dominated the list of the day's worst-performing ETFs, adding to investors' losses.

According to the Korea Exchange (KRX), Samsung Electronics was trading at 184,900 won as of 9:48 a.m. Friday, down 8.24%, or 16,600 won, from the previous session. The stock had fallen as low as 179,200 won earlier in the session. The decline followed a 7.57% drop Thursday, when the stock closed at 201,500 won, marking a second consecutive day of steep losses.

At the same time, SK Hynix was trading at 1,139,000 won, down 9.89%, or 125,000 won, from the previous close. The stock hit an intraday low of 1,089,000 won, extending its losses after plunging 9.46% Thursday.

The sharp declines in the semiconductor heavyweights also dealt a severe blow to leveraged ETFs tracking the stocks.

As of around 9:50 a.m., based on quotes delayed by 20 minutes on Koscom's ETF CHECK platform, the TIGER SK Hynix Single-Stock Leverage ETF was down 22.48%, while the KODEX SK Hynix Single-Stock Leverage ETF had fallen 22.06%. The RISE SK Hynix Single-Stock Leverage ETF and SOL SK Hynix Single-Stock Leverage ETF also dropped 21.16% and 21.15%, respectively.

Single-stock leveraged ETFs tracking Samsung Electronics also suffered across-the-board declines.

The 1Q Samsung Electronics Futures Single-Stock Leverage ETF plunged 20.19%, while the PLUS Samsung Electronics Single-Stock Leverage ETF fell 20.03%. The KIWOOM Samsung Electronics Futures Single-Stock Leverage ETF and ACE Samsung Electronics Single-Stock Leverage ETF were also down 19.98% and 19.63%, respectively.

In particular, leveraged ETFs tracking Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix accounted for a large share of the day's worst-performing ETFs. Related products had already posted substantial losses Thursday, including a 19.26% plunge in the KODEX SK Hynix Single-Stock Leverage ETF, leaving investors facing mounting losses for a second consecutive session.

Single-stock leveraged ETFs are designed to deliver twice the daily return of their underlying stocks. While this structure magnifies losses when share prices fall, the effects of daily compounding during volatile market conditions can also cause cumulative returns to diverge from simply twice the underlying stock's performance over the same period.

Retail investors who bought these products in anticipation of a rebound in semiconductor shares are therefore likely to face growing losses.

Meanwhile, the KOSPI fell below the 5,000-point mark Friday, triggering a first-stage circuit breaker. Trading on the main Korea Exchange market was suspended for 20 minutes after the benchmark index plunged more than 8% in early trading. 

The KOSDAQ also fell more than 6% in early trading, triggering a sell-side sidecar mechanism that temporarily suspended the execution of program-trading sell orders for five minutes, as selling pressure spread across South Korea's stock market.

                                                                                                              Park Ju-yeon