Five months ago, South Korea had the hottest stock market in the world. This week, it had its worst week in almost two decades.

The KOSPI index fell 14.46% for the week. That was its steepest weekly drop since October 2008, when the index lost 20.5% in the panic that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Even the COVID-19 crash in March 2020 never produced a weekly loss this large.

The Selloff Hit Hardest on Thursday

The index fell 7.57% that day, and a circuit breaker paused trading for 20 minutes.

SK Hynix Inc. (SKHY) ended the week down 24.3%, and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (SSNLF) fell 17.8%, both logging the worst weekly drop since October 2008.

The KOSPI now sits 37.8% below its record close of 9,114.55, though it is still up 34.5% in 2026.

The iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) was down more than 13% for the week in Friday trading.