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(2nd LD) Seoul shares nose-dive 9 pct on tech losses amid Middle East tensions

Seoul shares tumbled 9% on Monday as investors dumped technology stocks, triggered by Middle East tensions and profit-taking. The KOSPI fell 669 points to 6,806.93, with a circuit breaker halting trading temporarily. The won weakened against the dollar.

By Tertius News AI Desk 1 outlet · 2 articles Version 1 Coverage Jul 13, 2026 Published Aug 15

Lead

Seoul shares nose-dived 9 percent on Monday as investors offloaded technology stocks, driven by profit-taking and renewed tensions in the Middle East. The Korean won also weakened against the U.S. dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 669.01 points, or 8.95 percent, to close at 6,806.93, after touching a low of 6,783.43.

Coverage Comparison

Yonhap News, South Korea's leading wire service, reported that the market opened 0.85 percent lower and then extended losses, triggering a circuit breaker that halted trading of KOSPI-listed stocks for 20 minutes. This was the seventh activation of the measure this year, according to Yonhap.

Key Claims

The KOSPI dropped 8.95 percent to 6,806.93, with decliners far outnumbering gainers 713 to 179.
Trade volume was moderate at 469.86 million shares worth 39.8 trillion won (US$26.5 billion).
Institutional investors and foreigners sold a net 2.22 trillion won and 1.7 trillion won worth of shares, respectively, while individuals bought a net 3.9 trillion won.
The circuit breaker was triggered for the seventh time this year, halting trading for 20 minutes.
SK hynix's American depositary receipts (ADRs) closed at US$168 each on the Nasdaq, above the offering price of $149.
The yield on three-year Treasurys rose 4.1 basis points to 3.809 percent.

Tech stocks led the decline. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics plunged 10.7 percent to 254,500 won, while chipmaking rival SK hynix also suffered steep losses, Yonhap reported.

The sell-off came despite a strong U.S. market debut for SK hynix's share offering. On Friday, U.S. stocks advanced, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite both gaining 0.29 percent. SK hynix's ADRs closed at US$168, well above the offering price of $149. However, analysts said investors took profits on SK hynix shares and shifted to the ADRs.

Investor sentiment was further dampened by heightened uncertainty in the Middle East after the United States and Iran exchanged fresh strikes over the status of the Strait of Hormuz, according to Yonhap.

Samsung Securities attributed part of the volatility to newly introduced single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds linked to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, saying in a research note that these funds "continued to fuel volatility in the stock market."

How this outlet told it

Yonhap News — English as of Jul 13, 2026, 7:45 AM UTC

Framing: Seoul shares plunge 9 percent amid Middle East tensions — Neutral

Facts Included:

Seoul shares plunged 9 percent Monday
The Korean won fell against the U.S. dollar
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 669.01 points
Trade volume was moderate at 469.86 million shares worth 39.8 trillion won
Institutions and foreigners sold a net 2.22 trillion won and 1.7 trillion won worth of shares
Individuals bought a net 3.9 trillion won
The KOSPI extended its losses, triggering a circuit breaker that temporarily halted trading
SK hynix's American depositary receipts (ADRs) on the Nasdaq closed at US$168 each
The yield on three-year Treasurys rose 4.1 basis points to 3.809 percent

Read the source article →

Yonhap News — English as of Jul 13, 2026, 7:45 AM UTC

Framing: Seoul shares plunge 9 percent amid Middle East tensions — Neutral

Facts Included:

Seoul shares plunged 9 percent Monday
The Korean won fell against the U.S. dollar
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 669.01 points
Trade volume was moderate at 469.86 million shares worth 39.8 trillion won
Institutions and foreigners sold a net 2.22 trillion won and 1.7 trillion won worth of shares
Individuals bought a net 3.9 trillion won
The KOSPI extended its losses, triggering a circuit breaker that temporarily halted trading
SK hynix's American depositary receipts (ADRs) on the Nasdaq closed at US$168 each

Read the source article →

What was claimed, and who backed it

Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.

Claim	Confidence	Status
ClaimSeoul shares plunged 9 percent Monday as investors dumped technology stocks for profit-taking amid renewed tensions in the Middle East.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Yonhap News — English as of Jul 13, 2026, 7:45 AM UTC
ClaimThe Korean won fell against the U.S. dollar.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Yonhap News — English as of Jul 13, 2026, 7:45 AM UTC
ClaimThe benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 669.01 points, or 8.95 percent, to close at 6,806.93 after falling as low as 6,783.43.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Yonhap News — English as of Jul 13, 2026, 7:45 AM UTC
ClaimTrade volume was moderate at 469.86 million shares worth 39.8 trillion won (US$26.5 billion), with decliners far outnumbering gainers 713 to 179.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Yonhap News — English as of Jul 13, 2026, 7:45 AM UTC
ClaimInstitutions and foreigners sold a net 2.22 trillion won and 1.7 trillion won worth of shares, respectively, while individuals bought a net 3.9 trillion won.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Yonhap News — English as of Jul 13, 2026, 7:45 AM UTC
ClaimThe KOSPI extended its losses, triggering a circuit breaker that temporarily halted trading of KOSPI-listed stocks for 20 minutes.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Yonhap News — English as of Jul 13, 2026, 7:45 AM UTC
ClaimSK hynix's American depositary receipts (ADRs) on the Nasdaq closed at US$168 each, well above the offering price of $149.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Yonhap News — English as of Jul 13, 2026, 7:45 AM UTC
ClaimThe yield on three-year Treasurys rose 4.1 basis points to 3.809 percent.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Yonhap News — English as of Jul 13, 2026, 7:45 AM UTC

Transparency & Audit Trail

1 outlet · 2 articles consulted: Yonhap News — English 8 claims extracted Version 1 Written 2026-08-15