SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics stocks extended their selloff in Seoul on Wednesday as record memory-chip earnings failed to calm investors, sharply cutting the premium attached to the artificial-intelligence boom.
SK Hynix reversed an early gain and fell more than 8% during trading on July 29, while Samsung dropped nearly 5%.
The moves followed Tuesday’s rout, when SK Hynix lost 14.7%, Samsung fell 14.4% and the KOSPI sank 10.84%.
SK Hynix reported record second-quarter revenue of 79.32 trillion won and operating profit of 60.54 trillion won, yet both figures missed elevated forecasts.
The crash now reflects concerns over earnings expectations, Chinese competition and whether AI infrastructure spending can keep expanding.
Record earnings fail to stop the crash
SK Hynix’s operating profit surged 557% from a year earlier as booming demand for high-bandwidth memory lifted prices and margins.
Revenue rose 257%, while the company said HBM4 mass shipments began during the quarter.
Those numbers would support a rally. Instead, investors focused on revenue and operating profit coming roughly 5% to 7% below consensus.
After a rise earlier this year, the market had priced in near-perfect execution.
SK Hynix’s concentration in HBM also limited its exposure to some of the sharpest price gains in conventional memory.
That added to concerns that the company’s product mix did not deliver the upside traders expected.
Mirae Asset Securities analyst Kim Young-gun said the “recent share-price correction is excessive relative to its fundamentals.”
Mirae retained a Buy rating but cut its target to 2.8 million won from 4.2 million won, reflecting lower sector valuations, possible NAND weakness and heightened volatility.
Samsung’s preliminary guidance has shown sales of about 171 trillion won and operating profit of 89.4 trillion won.
Its detailed results on July 30 will reveal whether strength in conventional DRAM, HBM and other divisions can reassure investors.
How much further can both stocks fall?
No level can identify the precise bottom. The immediate direction depends on hyperscaler spending guidance, evidence on HBM and conventional-memory pricing, and whether leveraged selling and margin calls continue in Korea.
The bearish case is that valuation compression can persist even while earnings remain powerful.
SK Hynix and Samsung had enjoyed enormous gains, leaving both vulnerable when results merely met operational goals rather than exceeding investor assumptions.
The bullish case rests on supply tightness and longer-term contracts.
SK Hynix said it has finalised multi-year agreements with around 10 major customers, offering some visibility into structural AI-memory demand.
SK Securities analyst Han Dong-hee said that “a correction is an opportunity”, arguing that AI’s memory bottleneck and chipmakers’ earnings strength would not disappear quickly.
Further losses remain possible while sentiment and positioning stay fragile.
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