South Korea’s stock market selloff pushed nearly one in three listed companies to an intraday low for the year during the first trading week of November. Korea Exchange data showed that 844 of 2,659 companies on the Kospi and Kosdaq reached annual lows at some point from November 2 through November 6, representing 31.7 percent of the total.
The decline spread across both markets. The tally included 272 Kospi companies and 572 Kosdaq companies, while the Kospi fell 11.7 percent and the Kosdaq lost 11.1 percent over the same period. Measured by closing prices rather than intraday trading, 806 stocks recorded annual lows this month.
Pressure was especially concentrated on November 6, when 720 domestic stocks touched their lowest levels of the year in a single session. The report linked the global market weakness that day to investor concerns that stronger Democratic performance in the US midterm elections could lead to tighter regulation of artificial intelligence data centers. The available evidence does not establish how much of the Korean decline was attributable to that concern rather than other market forces.
Former market leaders join the decline
The losses were not confined to smaller companies. Hyundai Motor, Hanwha Aerospace, Doosan Enerbility and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries were among the prominent companies that posted their lowest closing prices of the year this month. These stocks represent robotics, defense and nuclear power themes that had helped lead the Kospi’s advance from last year through the first half of this year.
The breadth of the retreat means individual investors faced falling valuations across a wide portion of their holdings rather than in a narrow group of stocks. Attention now turns to whether the number of companies making new annual lows continues to rise and whether the Kospi and Kosdaq stabilize after their double-digit declines.