A near-miss at the 8,000 mark: South Korean stocks surge and then drop, closing down 2.2%

Gronghui May 12｜The South Korean stock market opened higher but closed lower today. The Korea Composite Index surged this morning, approaching the historic high of 8,000 points, before a "scary plunge," dropping more than 5% at one point to 7,421.71 points; it ultimately closed down 2.29% at 7,643.15 points. Major stocks SK Hynix closed down 2.4%, Samsung Electronics closed down 2.3%. In terms of news, the South Korean Financial Supervisory Service recently expressed concerns about signs of overheating in the stock market and the expansion of margin financing balances, emphasizing the need to be alert to excessive leveraged investment. In addition, the head of the Presidential Policy Office proposed that the government should consider distributing “dividends” to all citizens from tax revenues on excess profits generated by AI.