Due to the escalation of the Middle East situation, the Korea KOSPI index plummeted by 12% intraday, experiencing two consecutive days of sharp declines and circuit breakers. Why has it become the most severely impacted market globally?#中东局势升级

South Korea is the world's fourth-largest oil importer, with about 70% of its oil imported from the Middle East. If the Strait of Hormuz is blocked, it directly cuts off Korea's "energy artery" of the economy. Rising oil prices not only push up inflation and erode corporate profits but also put pressure on the Korean won exchange rate—yesterday, the Korean won briefly fell below the 1500 mark, hitting a 17-year low.
Even more critically, South Korea's semiconductor industry is highly dependent on Middle Eastern helium (helium is an essential gas for chip manufacturing). Market concerns are that a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would cut off the production lifelines of Samsung and SK Hynix (a well-known KOL has been repeatedly recommending Korean semiconductor ETFs these days). Both giants plummeted by 9.9% and 11.5% respectively yesterday, with a combined market value loss of about $170 billion, directly causing the index to crash.