Won Hits Two-Year High as Seoul Chip Stocks Lead Selloff

On Monday, the South Korean won reached its strongest level against the dollar in two years, even as shares in the chipmakers whose export earnings support the currency fell.

The contrast showed up as Seoul's markets reopened after a three-day holiday, with the benchmark KOSPI and the tech-heavy KOSDAQ both headed lower.

Seoul's Chip Giants Face a Harsh Return

Bull Theory said the KOSPI dropped more than 3%, erasing roughly 162.7 trillion won in value. The KOSDAQ fell even harder, sliding 4.29% from its previous close to 853.98.

BREAKING: Over ₩162,672,000,000,000 ($108B) wiped out from South Korean stocks as the KOSPI falls -3.2%.

KOSPI has crashed -31% from its June peak and remains in bear market territory.

— Bull Theory (@BullTheoryio), October 12, 2026

Foreign investors drove much of the session's selling, offloading a net 458 billion won of KOSPI shares by 9:55 a.m., the Asia Business Daily said.

South Korea's two biggest chipmakers led the decline. SK Hynix traded 3.81% lower at 1.617 million won, while Samsung Electronics slipped 3.63% to 252,500 won, based on Google Finance data.

Both names have also lost ground since October 7, with Samsung down 7.68% and SK Hynix down 7.23%. The slide has extended a downturn that began before the holiday.

Samsung's decline arrived even though the company released preliminary third-quarter earnings on October 8, estimating a record operating profit of 107.4 trillion won.

Despite the recent pullback, the two stocks are still far higher on the year. SK Hynix is up 138.85% from January 1, and Samsung has risen 96.5%.

The Seoul Economic Daily blamed the weak market tone on increased Middle East tensions and concerns that AI stocks have become overheated.

The corporate safety net may also be shrinking. The pair are nearing the end of buyback programs totaling a combined 55 trillion won.

Analysts have credited those repurchases with helping prop up the KOSPI, meaning the market is left with less buying pressure as caution spreads.

What Keeps the Won at a Two-Year Peak

The won, meanwhile, strengthened by as much as 0.8% from its prior close to 1,333.30 per dollar, Bloomberg reported. It later reduced that gain to 0.5%.

Min Gyeong-won, an economist at Woori Bank in Seoul, connected the move to broad dollar softness.

“The won is strengthening in line with broad dollar weakness as the euro, pound and yen all gain on lower oil prices,” Gyeong-won said.

Min added that dollar sales by exporters, especially chipmakers, should keep underpinning the won, though he noted those flows were light on Monday.

Analysts have picked out Samsung and SK Hynix as among the biggest sellers. In August, Edaily said the two were regularly converting export dollars into the market.

The won has risen 7.7% since January, helped by strong exports and corporate dollar selling. That has taken it from Asia's worst performer in the first half to the region's best in the second half.

The split shows how the same export strength that supports the won has not protected the companies behind it from a sell-off.

Exporters' dollar conversions can boost demand for the won, while chip stocks remain vulnerable to foreign investor outflows, fading buyback support and worries about AI valuations.