Kospi falls 2.5% as chip stocks slide and AI profitability concerns resurface
Key Facts
South Korea's Kospi index fell 2.5% during trading on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, according to Investing.com coverage, as chip stocks declined and concerns resurfaced over funding the artificial intelligence boom and its profitability. SK Hynix, described in the coverage as a memory-chip heavyweight, fell 3.5%. Samsung Electronics also dropped 1.8% in the trading covered by the same report. SK Hynix's decline exceeded the index's fall, while Samsung posted a smaller loss. The Korean market's decline followed gains in the previous two sessions and came as Samsung prepared to hold its third-quarter earnings conference call after issuing preliminary financial guidance.
The Kospi ended Monday's session on October 19 at 5,768.01 points, up 1.76%, according to Investing.com's historical price data. That followed a 2.05% rise on Friday, October 16, when the index closed at 5,668.05 points. Tuesday's losses thus followed two consecutive sessions of gains that brought the index back up after the earlier selloff. Friday's percentage gain was larger than the increase recorded at Monday's close. Tuesday's intraday decline of 2.5%, meanwhile, individually exceeded the percentage gain recorded in either of those sessions. The sequence reflected a shift from Thursday's decline to a recovery on Friday and Monday, followed by renewed losses on Tuesday.
The earlier selloff took place on Thursday, October 15, when the Kospi lost 454.59 points, according to Reuters coverage published by Investing.com. The index fell 7.57% that session to close at 5,554.22 points. That percentage decline was larger than the fall recorded during Tuesday's trading. In coverage of that selloff, Seo Sang-young, an analyst at Mirae Asset, said investors were testing "whether massive infrastructure investments will lead to actual income." Investing.com's coverage of Tuesday's trading linked weakness in technology stocks to renewed concerns over funding the AI boom and its profitability. The question of income generated by infrastructure spending thus featured in the explanation of the earlier selloff, alongside funding and profitability concerns in coverage of the latest decline.
Against the backdrop of trading in chip stocks, Samsung Electronics issued preliminary guidance for the third quarter of 2026 that included consolidated sales of approximately 195 trillion Korean won. The company estimated consolidated operating profit for the same period at about 107.40 trillion Korean won, according to its earnings guidance statement. Samsung described sales as "consolidated sales of approximately 195 trillion Korean won," while including operating profit among its preliminary estimates for the period. It said in the statement that the published figures "represent the midpoint of the estimate ranges," in compliance with Korean disclosure rules. The company thus provided its sales and operating profit estimates on a consolidated basis, specifying that the figures were the midpoints of estimated ranges. The guidance precedes the detailed earnings conference call the company scheduled for the same quarter.
Japan's upcoming release schedule begins with trade data, with the Ministry of Finance's Customs setting October 21 for publication of preliminary monthly statistics for September. The official schedule puts the release at 08:50 a.m. Japan time. The publication date is tied to that local time, while the release may fall on the evening of October 20 depending on the time zone used. The forthcoming release covers September trade, according to the month specified in the Japan Customs schedule. It will be followed by the national consumer price index for the same month, according to the Statistics Bureau of Japan's schedule. The bureau set October 23 for publication of the national index, after the release of preliminary trade statistics.
In South Korea, Samsung Electronics set October 29, 2026, for its third-quarter earnings conference call, according to the company's investor relations page. The call is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. Korea time. The company said in its scheduling announcement: "The third-quarter 2026 earnings conference call is scheduled for 10 a.m. on October 29, 2026." The call follows the preliminary guidance Samsung has already issued on sales and operating profit performance during that quarter. It also falls after publication of Japan's trade statistics and national consumer price index for September, according to the announced official schedules. Attention to Samsung's earnings thus shifts from the published preliminary guidance to the detailed earnings conference call scheduled for October 29.