For SK Hynix, Record Revenue Is No Shield From a Market Rout
10.06.2026 - 21:13:26 | boerse-global.de
A day after rocketing nearly 16% higher, shares of SK Hynix crashed back to earth on Wednesday, shedding 7.54% to close at 2,048,000 won. The whipsaw came as Korea's volatility index VKOSPI surged to an all-time high of 91.23, eclipsing even the 89.30 peak set during the 2008 financial crisis. The broader KOSPI index tumbled 4.52%, triggering a temporary halt in KOSPI-200 futures trading after they slid more than 5% below the reference price.
The selloff was fueled by a confluence of headwinds. An already fragile tech sector, bruised by Broadcom's disappointing outlook earlier in June, faced fresh geopolitical jitters after the US launched military strikes against Iran on Monday, with Tehran vowing retaliation against American bases. On top of that, traders braced for May US inflation data, widely expected to come in at 4.2% year-on-year — the highest reading in over three years — reviving fears that the Federal Reserve might resume rate hikes. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index had already lost 10% in recent days, wiping roughly $1.3 trillion in market value from AI-chip stocks as investors locked in profits after a months-long rally.
Yet the operational picture for the world's second-largest memory-chip maker remains strikingly robust. In the first quarter of 2026, SK Hynix posted record revenue of nearly 53 trillion won, a 198% surge year-over-year, driven by insatiable demand for HBM4 memory chips used in AI data centers. The company recently cemented a multi-year partnership with Nvidia to supply those essential chips for the Vera Rubin AI platform, locking in long-term orders in a fiercely competitive market. Industry analysts expect DRAM contract prices to rise roughly 60% by the second quarter, with NAND flash prices potentially jumping as much as 75%, thanks to tight supply in advanced HBM packaging.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying SK Hynix?
Beneath the surface, however, troubling cracks have appeared. Korean retail investors held a record 37.74 trillion won in margin loans at the start of June, raising the specter of forced liquidations if the selloff deepens. Korea Investment & Securities has already suspended margin trading after exhausting its own credit limits. The finance ministry, central bank, and financial watchdog issued a joint statement vowing immediate measures to curb excessive volatility and warning explicitly about leverage risks.
Adding to the chaos, the KIM ACE SK Hynix Single Stock Leverage ETF — designed to deliver twice the daily return of the underlying stock — exhibited bizarre behavior. On Tuesday, when SK Hynix shares surged 16%, the ETF collapsed 27%. The day before, it had soared 50% while the stock fell nearly 8%. The Korea Exchange placed the product on a warning list because of the divergence between its net asset value and market price. Korea Investment Management Co. blamed a liquidity shortfall. In Hong Kong, CSOP Asset Management’s much larger $10 billion Hynix ETF has shown little correlation with the stock’s daily swings, according to CIO Wang Yi, highlighting a structural quirk: Korean ETF providers conduct rebalancing internally, and when multiple products trade in the same direction simultaneously, they can amplify volatility in the underlying asset.
None of this has deterred the company’s long-term ambitions. SK Hynix holds a commanding 58% share of the global HBM market in the first quarter, according to Counterpoint, with Samsung and Micron each accounting for 21%. Despite the recent rout, the stock is still up roughly 202% year-to-date and trades more than 34% above its 50-day moving average of 1,522,300 won. On the capital-markets front, SK Hynix confidentially filed paperwork with the SEC in March for a potential ADR listing in the US that could raise up to $14 billion. The offering is expected in the second half of 2026, and the SEC could grant approval as early as the week starting June 22. For now, the chip giant’s fundamental story remains intact — but the fear gauge suggests investors are bracing for more turbulence ahead.
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