SK Hynix, Samsung Drag KOSPI Into Bear Market as Memory-Chip Selloff Deepens

The world’s hottest index has been dragged into a technical bear market as the memory-chip selloff gathered pace Wednesday. The KOSPI index closed down 5.4% in South Korean trading as its two largest constituents SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics dropped 5.7% and 6.3%, respectively. The KOSPI may have entered technical bear market but it remains one of the best-performing major global indexes this year, up 72%, while the S&P 500 is up 9.6% in 2026 so far.