Korea's Two Memory Giants Rebounded Strongly, with Samsung Electronics Up 4.85%; Xtrackers MSCI Korea UCITS ETF (02848.HK) Rose 4.11% Intraday on 21 October

NewTimeSpace News：Wind data show that Xtrackers MSCI Korea UCITS ETF (02848.HK) traded at HKD 1,596 intraday on 21 October, up 4.11% as of 14:22, with the RMB counter at RMB 1,366.479 and turnover of about HKD 9.88 million; it closed at HKD 1,533 on 20 October. It reached an intraday high of HKD 1,904.5 on 5 October before falling steadily, hitting an intraday low of HKD 1,470 on 15 October and closing at HKD 1,495.5, a maximum drawdown of about 23% from the 5 October peak; measured from the 15 October close, the intraday price on 21 October had rebounded about 6.7%.

On performance, the product rose 63.86% year to date, 8.63% over the past six months, 88.60% over the past year and 176.63% over the past two years, remaining one of the strongest single-market ETFs in Hong Kong; yet the volatility in October has been equally extraordinary — it fell 7.10% in a single day on 13 October and 10.29% on 15 October, a combined drawdown of more than 16% in two sessions. Correspondingly, the KOSPI fell more than 7% intraday on 13 October and more than 12% month to date, then plunged 9% intraday on 15 October, triggering its tenth circuit breaker this year; Korea's financial regulator convened an emergency meeting and issued a statement calling for measures to safeguard market stability and protect investors.

On the news front, the positives: Korea's two memory giants rebounded strongly on 21 October, with Samsung Electronics up 4.85% to KRW 221,750 and SK Hynix up 5.85% to KRW 1,294,500, while the KOSPI 200 rose 3.51% to 888.91 points; the same day Musk laid out SpaceX's AI computing plan — 13 GW by end-2027, with an extreme case of 20 GW, an annual recurring revenue target of USD 500 billion to USD 1 trillion by end-2027 and cloud rents above USD 50 billion per GW — reviving the global AI hardware narrative. Industry fundamentals remain supportive: the five major AI cloud providers maintain high 2026-2027 capex guidance and have signed long-term supply agreements with Samsung and SK Hynix, basically locking in long-term orders for high-end HBM capacity; Samsung's first-quarter revenue reached KRW 133.9 trillion, up 69% year on year, and SK Hynix's first-quarter revenue reached KRW 52.6 trillion, up 198%. On the downside: DWS, part of Deutsche Bank, believes the AI memory supercycle is uncertain and Korean market concentration risk is too high, seeing insufficient margin of safety even after the selloff and preferring to wait for earnings to validate demand sustainability; Korean market turnover at one point plunged 70% from its June peak as foreign and local retail investors both retreated; regulators tightened single-stock leveraged ETFs (raising the minimum cash margin from KRW 10 million to KRW 30 million), amplifying deleveraging swings; information technology accounts for about 69% of the MSCI Korea index, with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix together at about 60.8% (65.1% including preferred shares), so index moves are essentially the memory cycle and these two stocks; and with a USD base currency and HKD trading, KRW exchange rates and tracking deviation also affect net asset value.

The product is Xtrackers MSCI Korea UCITS ETF under Deutsche Bank's DWS, launched in July 2007 and listed in Hong Kong on 8 July 2009, with a total expense ratio of 0.45%. It tracks the MSCI Korea 20/35 Custom Index, which adds a 35% cap on any single constituent and a 20% cap on each of any two constituents to the MSCI Korea Index, retaining high exposure to memory leaders such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix while moderately diversifying concentration risk; it uses full replication, is denominated in USD and traded in HKD, and adopts an accumulating structure with no distributions. It suits aggressive investors bullish on the AI memory supercycle and a medium- to long-term recovery in Korean equities who can tolerate single-market and duopoly concentration risk. Risk warning: for reference only; this is not investment advice; past performance does not guarantee future results; invest with caution. (Data source: ROYALFLUSH INFO iFinD, as of 21 October 2026)