Explained: 3 reasons why South Korea's Kospi crashed up to 8% today

South Korea's Kospi slumped as much as 8%, briefly triggering a sidecar trading curb, as a Bank of Korea rate hike, a sharp sell-off in AI chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, and concerns over leveraged single-stock ETFs rattled investor sentiment despite the index's strong 2026 gains.