SK Hynix Plunges 15% in Seoul After Nasdaq Debut
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- SK Hynix shares closed 15.4% lower in Seoul on Monday — the largest single-day fall in the company's history per LSEG data — a day after its U.S. ADRs jumped 13% on their Wall Street debut
- Daniel Yoo, global strategist at Yuanta Securities, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" that confusion over memory demand and fair value drove the sell-off, with the ADR debut creating a new valuation benchmark and a more than 20% discount between SK Hynix's U.S. and Korean listings
- Yoo noted Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. ADRs trade at a 13%–14% premium to domestic shares as a comparison, and called the offering "additional share issuance" that expanded available stock supply
- Phillip Wool, chief research officer at Rayliant Global Advisors, called the pullback "mostly risk management" — portfolio rebalancing after outsized gains in South Korean and Taiwanese AI chipmakers — not a deterioration in the AI hardware outlook
- Wool added that AI investment is broadening beyond semiconductors, which should continue to benefit memory suppliers like SK Hynix over the next 6–12 months despite near-term volatility
Why it matters: The 15.4% drop is SK Hynix's worst-ever single-day decline and lands just one session after its Wall Street listing, leaving its Korean shares at a 20%+ discount to its U.S. ADRs — a far wider gap than Taiwan Semiconductor's 13%–14% ADR premium. The mechanics of the offering, which Yoo called "additional share issuance," means expanded supply will weigh on the Seoul stock until the two listings converge, complicating how Asian AI memory names are benchmarked.
