South Korea's KOSPI index has more than doubled this year, crossing 8,000 and peaking near 8,880, driven by domestic retail investors known as "ants." They bought semiconductor stocks aggressively, using leveraged ETFs and buying every dip, making them the market's backbone.
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix account for nearly half the index, concentrating risk. SK Hynix's market cap hit $1 trillion, and semiconductor exports surged 53% year-on-year in May. The KOSPI showed its volatility with an 8.18% single-day rebound on June 9.
Crypto has been absent from this retail frenzy. The key risk now is AI chip order flow from the US and China. Any deceleration could hit Korean chipmakers hard, given their dominance in memory chips.