SK Hynix sinks after Nasdaq debut amid profit-taking, easing earnings optimism

SK Hynix shares dropped as much as 8.2% in early Seoul trade on Monday as investors booked profit, after a high-profile U.S. listing saw the world's leading AI memory chipmaker surge 12.8% in its Nasdaq debut on Friday.

The South Korean ‌firm raised ⁠over $26 ⁠billion selling American Depositary Receipts priced $149 each. The ADRs opened 14% above the offer price at $170 before ending their first trading day with a 12.8% gain.

In Seoul on Monday, the benchmark KOSPI was trading down 2.8% as of 0057 GMT.


Ryu Young-ho, a senior analyst at NH ⁠Investment & Securities, ‌said investors were profit-taking after the conclusion of the U.S. listing, while sentiment also suffered from ⁠caution with regards to SK Hynix's second-quarter earnings.

He said investors had expected shipments of SK Hynix's HBM4 chips to increase from the second quarter, but that the increase does not appear to have materialised at scale.

Ryu also said investors had moderated earnings expectations because SK Hynix, with its greater exposure ‌to the HBM market than cross-town rival Samsung Electronics, was set to benefit less from a recent rise in prices ⁠for conventional DRAM chips.

SK Hynix led the market for high bandwidth memory chips with a 58% revenue share in the first quarter, whereas Samsung and U.S. competitor Micron Technology each held 21%, Counterpoint Research data showed.

HBM chips are primarily used in artificial intelligence systems for customers such as Nvidia and Alphabet's Google.