Shares on the Seoul exchange fell after a collapse in the AI memory chip trade in July drove sell-offs for Samsung and SK Hynix. This volatility left the Kospi as the poorest performing market globally for the third quarter, suffering its largest quarterly decline since the first quarter of 2020. For comparison, China's CSI 300 fell 12.5% during the period, whereas the S&P 500 climbed 2.3%.

The index remains up 60% year to date despite the recent drop. Future gains may be limited by rising bond yields and interest rate hikes from the Bank of Korea, posing a risk to a rally that saw the market rise 185% in less than two years.