"SK hynix Falls Below 1.3 Million Won" as 'Semiconductor Shock' Leaves Chey Taewon with a 400 Million Won Loss

Bought 3,620 SK hynix Shares in July
From a 1.3 Billion Won Gain to a 300 Million Won Loss in Three Months

SK hynix shares plunged, pushing Chairman Chey Taewon of SK Group's purchase into loss territory.

SK Group Chairman Choi Taewon. Yonhap News

According to the Korea Exchange, SK hynix closed at 1,244,000 won on October 15, down 175,000 won, or 12.33%, from the previous day. The closing price was below the level at which Chey bought the shares in July.

On July 30, Chey purchased 3,620 common shares of SK hynix on the market at an average price of 1,353,677 won per share. The total purchase amount was approximately 4,900,310,000 won, marking the first time Chey had bought SK hynix shares in his personal capacity.

The day after Chey's purchase, SK hynix shares closed at 1,718,000 won, up 29.95%. Chey recorded an unrealized gain of approximately 1,318,850,000 won in a single day. However, based on the share price of 1,244,000 won, the current value of his holdings is 4,503,280,000 won, representing an unrealized loss of approximately 397,030,000 won compared with the purchase amount and a return of -8.10%.

The sharp drop appears to have been driven by rising U.S. inflation and concerns about the profitability of artificial intelligence (AI) investments, which weighed on sentiment toward semiconductor stocks.

Selling was concentrated in large-cap semiconductor stocks, including Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. Sell-sidecars were triggered early in the session for both the KOSPI and KOSDAQ, and in the afternoon, both indexes fell more than 8%, triggering circuit breakers.

Losses were even steeper for leveraged ETFs tracking SK hynix. During the session, the KODEX SK Hynix Single Stock Leverage ETF fell 21.63% from the previous trading day's close to 5,290 won.

That was a 77.44% decline from its opening price of 23,450 won on May 27, its first day of listing. In other words, a 10,000,000-won investment made at that opening price would now be worth approximately 2,260,000 won based on the price.

The TIGER SK Hynix Single Stock Leverage ETF also fell 22.74% during the session to 4,435 won, a 77.81% drop from its reported listing price of 19,985 won. Both products have fallen to less than a quarter of their prices at listing.

As the declines deepen, the gains needed to recover the initial investment have also grown. From their current prices, the KODEX product would need to rise approximately 343% and the TIGER product approximately 351% to return to their listing prices.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.