[Edaily Reporter JAEMIN SONG ] With SK hynix’s stock price plummeting by more than 11%, attention is turning to the unrealized gains and losses of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, who purchased the company’s shares for approximately 4.9 billion won last July. Although he recorded unrealized gains of over 1.3 billion won just one day after the purchase, the stock price has since fallen below the purchase price after about two and a half months, resulting in an estimated unrealized loss of more than 300 million won.

According to the Korea Exchange on the 15th, SK hynix closed at 1,262,000 won, down 157,000 won (11.06%) from the previous trading day.

Previously, on July 30, Chairman Choi purchased 3,629 shares of SK hynix common stock on the open market at an average price of 1,353,677 won per share. The total purchase amount was approximately 4.9 billion won, marking the first time Chairman Choi had personally purchased SK hynix shares under his own name.

Immediately after Chairman Choi’s purchase, the stock price rose sharply. On July 31, the day after the purchase, SK hynix’s stock price closed at 1,718,000 won, surging 29.95% from the previous trading day. Consequently, the market value of the shares Chairman Choi had purchased rose to approximately 6.21916 billion won. This meant he realized an unrealized gain of about 1.31885 billion won in just one day.

However, the situation changed as the stock price subsequently fell. Based on the closing price of 1,262,000 won on that day, the market value of the 3,620 shares purchased by Chairman Choi is 4.56844 billion won. Compared to the initial purchase price of approximately 4.9 billion won, this represents a paper loss of about 331.87 million won, resulting in a negative return of 6.77%.

However, this is a simple calculation based on the assumption that Chairman Choi has retained all the shares he purchased last July to the present. The realized gain or loss may vary depending on his actual holdings.

Chairman Choi had previously emphasized long-term holding of SK hynix shares at the Jeju Forum hosted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry last July. At the time, he stated, “Rather than buying and selling, holding onto them is a good way to preserve wealth,” adding, “Memory will continue to be needed in the future, so given time, the stock price will trend upward.”

Meanwhile, the domestic stock market fell sharply today amid overlapping concerns over interest rate hikes driven by rising U.S. inflation and uncertainty regarding the profitability of investments in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. SamsungElectronics closed at 210,000 won, down 9.48% from the previous trading day, and SK hynix also fell by more than 11%.

The KOSPI closed at 5,554.22, down 454.59 points (7.57%) from the previous trading day. Following the activation of the sell-side sidecar on both the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets, the circuit breaker—which suspends trading for 20 minutes due to a sharp drop in the index—was also triggered.