On the Korea Exchange on Wednesday, Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) fell about 2% while SK hynix (000660.KS) plunged more than 5%. Both companies are primarily memory chipmakers, yet their share price declines showed a notable divergence. Securities analysts pointed to differences in revenue concentration as the key factor.
Samsung Electronics closed at 176,300 won, down 1.89% from the previous session. SK hynix, meanwhile, ended at 873,000 won, falling 5.31%. The two companies compete primarily in memory semiconductors including high-bandwidth memory (HBM), yet their rates of decline differed by more than twofold.
Analysts attribute the gap to differences in business structure. Samsung Electronics generates revenue across diversified segments including memory chips, foundry services, System LSI and the Device Experience (DX) division. SK hynix, by contrast, derives the vast majority of its earnings from memory semiconductors, making it more sensitive to related developments.
"SK hynix generally shows greater price volatility compared to Samsung Electronics because its revenue is less diversified," said Kim Dong-won, head of the KB Securities Research Center. "However, whether today's steep decline was influenced by Google's recently announced 'TurboQuant' requires further observation over time."
The benchmark KOSPI index closed at 5,277.30, down 161.57 points or 2.97% from the previous session. The index fell as low as 5,151.22 during intraday trading before paring some losses. Foreign investors net sold 2.1355 trillion won ($1.6 billion) worth of shares, marking eight consecutive months of net selling, while retail and institutional investors were net buyers of 898.8 billion won and 881.3 billion won, respectively.
