EconomySouth Korea’s Kospi swings wildly amid AI boom and government intervention

South Korea’s Kospi index has experienced extreme volatility this year. It more than doubled to move above 9,000 points before plunging 40 percent, prompting automatic trading suspensions more than 50 times. Analysts link the swings to government intervention, deregulation of exchange-traded funds and the market’s heavy dependence on AI chipmakers Samsung and SK Hynix. Together, the companies now represent more than half of the market. Small investors, including teenagers who borrowed money to buy shares, say they are taking the hardest hit from the turbulence.