SKHY stock sank 15% in Asia on Monday as chip stocks declined in premarket trading and investors locked in profits after a strong US debut. The move put SK Hynix back under pressure just days after a Friday offering that had drawn heavy demand and lifted its American depositary shares above the $149 offering price.
Ines Ferre, a Senior Business Reporter for Yahoo Finance, covered the slide and the market backdrop. SK Hynix led the drop among South Korean memory makers as a report signaling that current-quarter operating profit may trail consensus estimates weighed on sentiment.
Friday's $26.5 Billion Offering
$26.5 billion was raised in the offering, which made SK Hynix's US IPO the largest US IPO ever by a foreign company. That size set a high bar for follow-through, and Friday's 13% surge above the $149 offering price showed how aggressively buyers chased the new shares before Monday's reversal.
13% above the offer price was enough to give the stock a strong first day, but that early gain did not hold into the new week. By Monday, the same name that had just benefited from its US debut was at the center of a broad selloff in Asia.
Micron, Sandisk, Western Digital
More than 5% was the drop for Micron, Sandisk, and Western Digital on Monday morning, while Intel, AMD, Broadcom, and Arm Holdings each declined roughly 2%. Samsung Electronics also fell in South Korea, showing that the pressure extended beyond one company and into a wider chip complex.
Roughly 2% in losses across Intel, AMD, Broadcom, and Arm Holdings suggested the decline was not limited to South Korean names. The selling pointed to profit-taking in a crowded AI trade, with chip investors trimming positions after the sector's run-up earlier this year.
Late June AI peak
Late June marked the sector peak, when concern grew that hyperscale cloud providers may need to take on more debt to fund AI infrastructure spending. That backdrop left chip names sensitive to any signal that earnings momentum could cool, and SK Hynix's reported current-quarter profit risk gave traders a fresh reason to reduce exposure.
For holders of SKHY and SKHYV, Monday's 15% slide was the immediate reminder that a US debut can reset valuation fast, but not always in the direction the first session suggests. The next test for the stock will come from whether the operating profit concerns fade or continue to dominate trading in Asia.
