South Korean Stocks Plunge as Finance Minister Defends Economic Stability
2 sources · South Korea · 1 of them is linked to a state
Who reported this
- Yonhap
- The Korea Herald
What the colours mean
- Left
- Centre-left
- Centre
- Centre-right
- Right
- A hatched block means the outlet is affiliated with, or controlled by, a state.
Political lean describes where an outlet sits within the politics of its own country. It is never a position on a single global scale.
Political lean is comparable inside one country and not across them, which is why the bar groups by country first. Publicly funded broadcasters are not marked as state-linked.
The owner of each outlet is listed as a matter of record, not as a judgement about the outlet.
Every source for this story reports from South Korea.
South Korean stocks fell sharply on Thursday, with the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) dropping 4.52 percent to 6,299.88 by late morning. The decline was led by large cap technology shares, including Samsung Electronics, which sank 5.89 percent, and SK hynix, which slumped 8.75 percent. The volatility prompted the Korea Exchange to activate a sell side sidecar at 10:18 a.m. suspending program trading for five minutes. The slump followed a mixed performance on Wall Street where the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.83 percent due to losses in tech heavyweights like Alphabet and Advanced Micro Devices.
Amidst the market turmoil, Finance Minister Koo Yun cheol expressed confidence in the national economy during a meeting with economy related ministers. Koo described the economy as more solid than ever and achieving unprecedented results, citing strong growth and record high exports of 102.2 billion dollars in June. He noted that the government had raised its 2025 growth forecast to 3 percent from 2 percent. To mitigate volatility, the government has implemented measures including restrictions on single stock leveraged exchange traded funds linked to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.
Reporting on the minister's comments differed by political lean. Center outlets focused on the government's vows to stabilize the market and its confidence in macroeconomic indicators. Center right outlets framed the remarks as a direct rejection of claims that South Korea is becoming uninvestable, specifically referencing a Bloomberg Opinion column that highlighted the Kospi's steep decline and extreme volatility.
How each side framed it
- Centre
- Focused on the government's confidence in economic indicators and the specific technical details of the stock market decline.
- Centre-right
- Framed the finance minister's statements as a defensive rebuttal against foreign media claims that the country is uninvestable.
Sources
- Centre-right The Korea Herald: Seoul shares start sharply lower on tech losses amid Hormuz hopes
- Centre-right The Korea Herald: Finance minister voices confidence in economy, vows efforts to stabilize stock market
- Centre-right The Korea Herald: ‘Stronger than ever’: Finance chief rejects ‘uninvestable’ Korea claim
- Centre Yonhap: Finance minister voices confidence in economy, vows efforts to stabilize stock market
- Centre Yonhap: KRX activates sell-side sidecar for KOSPI on sharp decline
- Centre Yonhap: (URGENT) Seoul shares start sharply lower on tech losses amid Hormuz hopes
- Centre Yonhap: Seoul shares extend losses late Thurs. morning on tech slump
- Centre Yonhap: (LEAD) Seoul shares start sharply lower on tech losses amid Hormuz hopes
- Centre Yonhap: Seoul shares start sharply lower on tech losses amid Hormuz hopes
100% of the statements in this article were traced back to the source articles listed above.