The biggest epicenter of this plunge was the strong selling by foreign investors. They disposed of domestic semiconductor stocks on a large scale, led by Samsung Electronics, instantly absorbing market liquidity. In particular, in the case of Samsung Electronics, their rush to escape was so aggressive and persistent that foreign ownership fell to the lowest level in 13 years. Rather than viewing this phenomenon simply as a fundamental problem of the company, experts analyze it as the result of a combination of the demand for securing funds due to changes in the global investment environment, such as the listing of Space As a result, the selling bomb thrown by foreigners ended up in the hands of individual investors, and in the process, Samsung Electronics suffered the humiliation of losing its top spot in market capitalization to SK Hynix.

What maximized the market's fear was the chain of powerful safety measures that forced trading to stop. The selling sidecar that started first in the KOSDAQ market immediately spread to the KOSPI market, and later, with the index plummeting nearly 10%, a circuit breaker was activated and the market was completely paralyzed for 20 minutes. This is clear evidence showing that investment sentiment has been extremely depressed, as evidenced by indicators showing a record decline, such as the KOSPI index being pushed to the 8,200 line and the KOSDAQ falling below the 900 line. The exchange rate, a macro indicator, also threatened the 1,540 won level, further highlighting the vulnerability of our economy amid the strong dollar trend. Individual investors responded with record-breaking net purchases, but it was not enough to block the huge wave of foreigners, which is a cruel aspect of this market.

Meanwhile, despite the rough waves of the stock market, policy changes regarding foreign workers are being felt on another side of our society. The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Ministry of Justice announced a joint investigation plan to intensively examine the human rights conditions of foreign seasonal workers in the fishing industry. This appears to be due to the government's judgment that social responsibility and institutional overhaul, not just economic aspects, are urgent as human rights violations and forced labor cases of foreign workers have recently emerged as a social controversy. The expansion of public seasonal work projects and the construction of welfare centers are part of efforts to provide more stable residential conditions for foreign workers. Although it is different from the turbulence of the stock market, these human rights protection measures in industrial sites that are highly dependent on foreign workers are an essential task that must be addressed in order for our economy to promote sustainable growth.

The key to determining the future direction of the market is the performance announcements of global semiconductor companies and whether investment sentiment will recover accordingly. Whether Micron's earnings announcement can meet the market's expectations is considered the most important variable in determining short-term volatility. The securities market still views the possibility of a technical rebound for Samsung Electronics and the expectation of profit improvement in the second half of the year as a valid scenario, but the prevailing view is that it will take a considerable amount of time for market uncertainty to be resolved. In particular, within the semiconductor industry, stock price differentiation due to portfolio differences between Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix is ​​deepening, and investors are at a time when a more sophisticated strategic approach is required. In conclusion, this incident shows how vulnerable our market is to the movement of global capital, while also suggesting that improving corporate fundamentals and proving performance have become more important than ever.