A tightening transmission chain originating from South Korean banks resonated with structural portfolio rebalancing selling pressure following SK hynix's US listing on Monday, July 13th. The intensity of the year's seventh trading halt on South Korea's KOSPI index shattered sentiment across the Asia-Pacific tech sector.

Shares of South Korea-listed SK hynix plunged a record 15.4% in a single day, wiping over $89 billion from its market value, while Samsung Electronics tumbled nearly 11%. The KOSPI index closed down 8.9%. Shockwaves rapidly rippled into the A-share market, with the STAR 50 Index retreating from highs and memory chip stocks hitting their daily downside limits.

However, at the other end of the widespread tech stock panic in the Asia-Pacific region, domestic GPU leader Moore Threads saw its shares surge over 13% intraday to a record high, with its market cap breaching 400 billion yuan. Meanwhile, the A-share banking sector moved against the downtrend, buoyed by annual dividend payouts totaling approximately 645.6 billion yuan.

These divergent performances indicate that the market is not engaged in indiscriminate selling but is instead conducting a nuanced, capital-driven repricing. It is distinguishing between supply-side noise and genuine demand signals within the AI cycle, and separating valuation bubbles driven by liquidity from growth logic underpinned by industrial trends.

Origins of the Transmission Chain

The de-risking pressures in South Korea did not erupt suddenly on July 13th, but the severity of that day exposed the gravity of the situation.

According to reports, South Korea's five major commercial banks had already utilized over 85% of their full-year household loan growth quotas by the first half of the year, with two banks exceeding regulatory lending limits. With new credit capacity for the second half nearly exhausted, the market widely anticipates an imminent "cliff-like contraction in credit." Research from an overseas team at a securities firm indicates that the total available funds for retail investors in the South Korean market have declined by approximately 20%, and the flow of funds from banks to brokerages has completely stalled.

A fund manager pointed out that the direct catalyst was SK hynix's US listing. Institutions migrated their holdings from the South Korean-listed shares to US-listed ADRs, creating a structural one-way portfolio shift involving selling the Korean shares while increasing allocations to the ADRs. South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service has requested asset management companies to submit volatility suppression and remedial plans for single-stock leveraged ETFs. A high-level "F4" coordination mechanism involving the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Financial Services Commission, the Bank of Korea, and the FSS has intervened. FSS Governor Lee Chan-jin publicly expressed regret for not doing everything possible to prevent the product's launch.

Three Drivers for SK hynix's Plunge, Excluding Demand Collapse

The core reason for the record plunge in SK hynix shares was not a weakening in demand for AI memory, which is a key factor in judging the sustainability of this shock.

According to an analysis, Monday's crash in SK hynix's Korean shares was driven by three supply-side factors: profit-taking following the ADR's nearly 13% surge on its US debut, new share supply from the $26.5 billion US IPO causing dilution, and repricing between the Korean shares and the US ADRs. Portfolio rebalancing by investors across South Korean and Taiwanese AI hardware stocks further intensified the selling pressure.

Analysts widely view this pullback as temporary. It was noted that "structural AI memory demand continues to exceed supply. The broader trend of rising memory prices, demand growth, and supply tightness did not disappear overnight."

A securities firm predicted that SK hynix's Q2 operating profit might be 8% lower than market expectations, as a higher proportion of HBM revenue limited the upside for average selling price increases compared to peers. However, this constitutes an earnings expectation revision, not a demand collapse.

More significant was the public statement by SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung on Friday, coinciding with the company's Nasdaq listing. He stated that the global memory industry is heading toward its most severe supply shortage ever, with the peak expected around 2027 and the shortage potentially lasting beyond 2030. This judgment aligns with a previous consistent assessment from Micron's CEO.

Divergent Paths on the Same Day

The A-share tech sector did not experience uniform selling. The fissures within the sector carry more signaling power than the overall decline.

Memory chips bore the brunt initially, with several stocks hitting their daily downside limits. Other AI hardware segments like optical fiber, MLCCs, and PCBs also faced concentrated profit-taking. Yet, on the opposite end of the selling, shares of Moore Threads surged over 13% intraday to 1,033 yuan, closing up nearly 7% with a market cap exceeding 400 billion yuan.

Two independent logics supported Moore Threads' strength. First, the upcoming debut of its "Xijing" S-series super-node products at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference. Second, domestic, self-developed GPUs are benefiting from an explosion in inference-side demand and restricted supply of high-end overseas chips, opening a significant window for large-scale replacement. Data shows that the market share of domestic AI accelerator cards in China rose from 30% in 2024 to 41% in 2025, with the domestic AI accelerator chip market size projected to grow 59% year-over-year to 381.4 billion yuan in 2026.

A fund manager noted that the tech stock pullback is more a cooling at the trading level rather than a reversal of the industrial logic. "AI computing power demand is still growing. Sectors like domestic computing power, memory, and semiconductor equipment/materials remain within the major trends of industrial upgrading and import substitution."

A chief economist expressed the view that the core of this market phase is driven by AI industry红利 lifting risk appetite in a targeted manner, and that "a moderate correction helps the行情 proceed more steadily."

The Safety Margin Marked by 645.6 Billion in Dividends

Amid the剧烈震荡 in the tech sector, capital has not exited the market but is undergoing large-scale reallocation.

Bank of Suzhou led city commercial banks with a 6.15% gain, while China Construction Bank rose 3.56%, and Bank of Communications and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China also advanced. Data shows that 41 listed banks have announced combined 2025 annual dividend payouts exceeding a record 645.6 billion yuan, with year-end dividends recently密集落地 amounting to nearly 345.9 billion yuan. Taking a红利低波 index as an example, its trailing twelve-month dividend yield has reached 5.2%, while its trading volume as a percentage of the total A-share market was only 1.23% over the past week, indicating a far healthier trading structure compared to the tech sector.

Data from an asset manager shows that红利-themed ETFs across the market saw net inflows of 9.8 billion yuan and 9.2 billion yuan in May and June, respectively, reflecting the持续布局 of medium- to long-term capital. Another fund manager added that coal stocks, supported by both high dividends and a tight supply-demand balance, possess both offensive and defensive attributes at the current juncture.

A fund company summarized that this adjustment does not represent a complete中期主线切换. It will take time for the market to重新凝聚合力, and tech stocks are still expected to outperform consumer and domestic demand sectors once sentiment and positioning complete their切换. Following this adjustment, the market will return to comparing performance delivery, order growth, and valuation attractiveness. The 645.6 billion yuan in dividends and the new highs for Moore Threads have, from two different directions,提前标出了 the coordinates for this recalculation.