After the US midterm elections, South Koreans were thrown into complete panic.

South Korea’s deputy prime minister and finance minister convened an emergency market meeting and the exchange triggered a sidecar circuit breaker after KOSPI opened below 5,000, extending a 5.28% drop on Nov. 5 as a Democratic sweep in the U.S. midterms threatened AI data-center buildouts. Authorities exempted brokers from the 140% margin-maintenance requirement for three months to halt forced selling by retail investors who net bought 5.83 trillion won of Samsung Electronics and 3.36 trillion won of SK Hynix in the month before the slump. Single-stock leveraged ETFs had already shrunk 41% to 9.3 trillion won between end-June and July, while the National Pension Service’s stakes in 287 companies fell 35% to 333 trillion won from end-June to Oct. 15. The selloff matters because foreign investors hold roughly 38% of KOSPI market value and had already net sold about 203.7 trillion won this year through Oct. 14, leaving the won exposed to further outflows. Watch whether the margin reprieve stems redemption pressure and whether semiconductor exports, which reached 42.3% of total exports in May and neared 47% in early October, hold up as U.S. AI capex sentiment shifts.