Seoul, March 3, 2026, 20:22 (KST) — Market closed
- Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) closed down 9.88% at 195,100 won on Tuesday. 1
- Brent crude climbed about 6% to roughly $82.68 a barrel as the Iran conflict raised supply fears. 2
- Samsung is due to hold its annual general meeting on March 18. 3
Samsung Electronics slid 9.88% to close at 195,100 won on Tuesday, with the benchmark KOSPI ending down 7.24% at 5,791.91. Memory-chip rival SK Hynix fell 11.5%. 4
The move lands on a stock that has been doing heavy lifting for South Korea’s market. A chipmaker-led rally pushed the KOSPI above 6,000 for the first time on Feb. 25 as investors chased artificial-intelligence optimism, Reuters reported. 5
Tuesday’s fall also came after Seoul markets were shut on Monday for a public holiday. “The main index experienced expanded volatility as the Middle East risk was realized after a long weekend,” Roh Dong-gil, an analyst at Shinhan Securities, said. 6
A “sidecar” was triggered in KOSPI 200 futures after the contract fell more than 5%, briefly halting program sell orders — automated basket trades that can amplify moves. Foreigners sold 5.18 trillion won of shares while individuals were net buyers, Seoul Economic Daily reported. 7
The rout was not just a Korea story. Global stocks were broadly lower on Tuesday as investors weighed the Iran war’s impact on energy supplies, with oil prices rising on concern over disruptions near the Strait of Hormuz, the Associated Press reported. 8
The won sank with it. The currency closed daytime trading at 1,466.1 per dollar, and market attention shifted to whether it tests 1,480 — seen by traders as a psychological line — Korea JoongAng Daily reported, citing market participants and banks’ scenario ranges. 9
Foreign selling pressure has been building. Foreign investors net sold about 5.17 trillion won on the KOSPI and extended their streak to nine sessions, while the VKOSPI — an options-based gauge of expected swings often dubbed Korea’s fear gauge — jumped above 60, Seoul Economic Daily said. Shin Joong-ho, head of LS Securities Research Center, called the war “merely a trigger” for a market that had run ahead on ETF-driven basket buying. 10
Samsung’s own session was volatile. The stock opened at 209,500 won and traded as low as 195,100 won, according to Yahoo Finance data. 11
In company news, Samsung said it plans to transition all manufacturing operations into “AI-Driven Factories” by 2030, rolling out digital-twin simulations and specialised AI agents across production. “The next phase of manufacturing innovation lies in building autonomous environments,” YoungSoo Lee, an executive vice president at Samsung Electronics, said in a statement. 12
Samsung also said its 2026 OLED TVs and next-generation Odyssey gaming monitors are compatible with NVIDIA’s G-SYNC, a feature aimed at reducing screen tearing and stutter in gaming. “Our goal is simple: deliver a consistently great gaming experience,” Kevin Lee, an executive vice president in Samsung’s visual display business, said. 13
But for the stock in the near term, crude and the dollar are the bigger tells. Oil and gas prices surged and the dollar rallied as the conflict looked set to last for weeks, stirring worries about inflation, Reuters reported; strategist Lindsey Bell said the market’s focus was “about inflation and oil.” 14
For Samsung investors, the next catalysts are straightforward: Wednesday’s Seoul open (March 4) and any fresh moves in oil and the won. The calendar then turns to Samsung’s annual general meeting at 9:00 a.m. KST on March 18. 15
