SK Hynix shares retreat after Nasdaq debut as investors take profits Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock
SK Hynix (NASDAQ:SKHY) shares fell sharply on Monday, giving back gains made after the company’s strong Nasdaq debut, as investors locked in profits and reassessed valuations following the memory chip maker’s recent rally.
The South Korean chipmaker’s shares closed down 15.4% in Seoul, marking their largest single-day decline on record.
Over in the US, the company’s Nasdaq-listed shares were down about 6% after climbing 12.8% in their Wall Street debut on Friday.
Nigel Green, chief executive of financial advisory firm deVere Group, wrote that the sharp reversal highlights the difference between enthusiasm surrounding high-profile listings and longer-term business performance.
“A 12.8% pop on debut day tells you almost nothing about a company’s earnings power,” Green wrote.
“It tells you that a room full of investors got excited about a headline, the biggest foreign listing in history, the hottest name in the AI supply chain, and decided to buy first and ask questions later. Within 48 hours the market asked the questions, and the answer wasn’t as exciting as the debut.”
The broader semiconductor sector also traded lower on Monday. The S&P 500 fell 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.7%, while Micron and Sandisk each lost about 4%, Seagate dropped 3%, and AMD and Intel fell around 2%.
Green wrote that the broader weakness reflected investor sentiment across AI-related semiconductor stocks. He contrasted the declines with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., whose shares rose about 1% after the company reported a 67.9% year-over-year increase in June revenue and exceeded the upper end of its second-quarter guidance.
“TSMC didn’t need a debut-day headline. It needed four straight years of execution, and the market rewarded that with a green day while headline-driven names went red,” Green said. “This is not a coincidence, it’s the entire lesson of Monday’s session in one chart. Fundamentals held up. Hype didn’t.”
Green added that the SK Hynix pullback could serve as a reminder for investors to distinguish between companies supported by operating performance and those benefiting primarily from market momentum.
“The question was whether Friday’s price reflected that importance or reflected the excitement of the moment, and Monday gave investors their answer,” he said.
“This is going to keep happening as more AI-adjacent names come to market. The stocks that hold up will be the ones with TSMC’s kind of numbers behind them, not the ones with the loudest debut.”