“Just when it seems to be rising, it crashes; just when it seems over, it rebounds”—Samsung Electronics and SK hynix shareholders are at their wits’ end [Money Signal]

[Financial News] Yesterday, fear ruled; today, hope has raised its head again. But no one knows what tomorrow will bring. For individual investors who have put substantial sums into Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, the recent stock market has been a punishing roller coaster, enough to make them dizzy.
Imagine an ordinary office worker who scrimped and saved from their salary to invest 30 million won in Samsung Electronics. If they held the stock at its closing price of 223,500 won on the 21st, its value would have shrunk to about 28.93 million won by the close just two days later, on the 23rd. In the blink of an eye, 1.07 million won vanished into thin air. For some, that is a month’s worth of groceries; for others, their child’s tuition at a private academy.
The problem is that these stomach-churning swings have become part of everyday life.
The KOSPI Composite Index closed up 0.30% at 5,550.30 on the 23rd. On the surface, it looked like a calm day of gains, but the trading screens were a battlefield. The index opened down 2.36% from the previous day and at one point plunged as much as 4.12% intraday, falling to 5,305.98. Then, in the afternoon, it fiercely clawed back its losses and ultimately closed in positive territory. The gap between the day’s low and high reached 244.32 points.
The market’s frenzy is even clearer from its trajectory over the past three trading days. On the 21st, the KOSPI Composite Index surged 3.29%, prompting celebrations, but on the 22nd it plunged 3.52% in a single day, wiping out all of those gains. Then, on the 23rd, the index got back on its feet after a massive intraday sell-off. That was thanks to SK hynix, whose 4.42% surge hauled it higher.
But a rebound in share prices does not mean the market has found its bottom. On the 23rd, foreign investors were net sellers of a whopping 993.4 billion won in the KOSPI market. Even as they unleashed the equivalent of 1 trillion won in sell orders, institutional investors simply stepped in to defend the index by buying up 872.6 billion won.

What is shaking our stock market now is the double whammy of fundamentals and investor flows. In global markets, doubts are growing over whether the astronomical investment in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry will generate comparable returns. The funding burden on U.S. big tech companies, along with concerns that high interest rates and high oil prices will persist, is also weighing on investor sentiment.
On top of that, the domestic market’s uniquely tangled investor flows have poured fuel on the volatility. The large-scale share buybacks that Samsung Electronics and SK hynix had carried out to support their share prices recently came to an end. The “big players” who could reliably absorb shares when foreign investors sell have disappeared. SK hynix’s surge on the 23rd was also driven only by a “company-specific positive” — its U.S. subsidiary Solidigm’s withdrawal of plans to go public — and does not mean that investor flows across the market have stabilized.
Attention is now turning to next week. SK hynix’s earnings report on the 28th and Samsung Electronics’ on the 29th are coming one after another. Beyond the companies’ results, the market is waiting for an outlook on AI chip demand and further “shareholder returns,” such as share buybacks. The Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision, also scheduled for the same day, is another major factor that could shape investor sentiment toward global technology stocks.

But for individual investors who laugh and cry over the market’s numbers every day, these macro-level analyses can sometimes feel hollow. When prices rise 3%, it can seem like you should buy right away; when they fall 4% the next day, fear can drive you to hit the sell button. That is the painful reality for retail investors.
Knowing for certain whether the stock market will soar or plunge tomorrow is in the realm of the gods. Rather than jumping aboard short-term price swings, investors should take a long-term view of companies’ earnings outlooks and trends in foreign investor flows.
Above all, the amount due on a credit card bill next month and the retirement savings needed 10 years from now can never carry the same weight.
Keeping a “safety net” in place to protect the daily lives of me and my family from falling apart, even if the stock market convulses again. That is the one investment principle to put first in this brutally volatile market.
[email protected] Jeon Sang-il Reporter