South Korea spent much of this year as a poster child of the scorching global AI trade. Now, by almost every measure, the $4.3 trillion stock market is rapidly losing relevance with investors.
Turnover has collapsed 70% from its peak in late May, foreigners are retreating at the fastest pace in Asia and local retail investors are also pulling back. The Kospi, the world’s best-performing major equities benchmark in the first half, has since lost 22% to be the worst in the second half while its AI-heavy Taiwanese and US peers set new highs.
