Goldman Sachs maintained its 12-month Kospi target at 12,000 in an Aug. 4 report, arguing South Korean equities have become oversold relative to fundamentals even after the recent sell-off. The bank said the correction was driven largely by concerns about a slowdown in the memory semiconductor cycle and by technical factors including position-limit-related selling in large-cap chip stocks, liquidation of single-stock leveraged ETFs and momentum-driven foreign selling. Major local brokerages turned more cautious, with Daishin Securities cutting its full-year target to 9,300 from 11,500 and Shinhan Securities lowering its second-half target to 8,800 from 11,000 despite keeping earnings estimates unchanged. The market weakness deepened in August, when the Kospi's daily average trading value fell to 26.28 trillion won through Aug. 9, the lowest this year, from 36.88 trillion won in July, while daily average volume dropped to 301.67 million shares and the index fell 5.10%, triggering circuit breakers twice. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix fell 12.00% and 17.23% this month, respectively, amid a reset in semiconductor expectations, concerns about High Bandwidth Memory and per-server memory capacity optimization, weaker next-quarter guidance from SanDisk, and delays in broader shareholder-return announcements. Reuters reported on Aug. 5 that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix planned expanded shareholder-return measures; SK Hynix later declared a quarterly dividend of 375 won per common share on Aug. 7 and said additional measures were under review for announcement in the third quarter. Analysts said the slump has also been intensified by higher oil prices, rising U.S. Treasury yields near 4.7% and renewed concerns about further Federal Reserve tightening after the Fed left rates unchanged at last month's FOMC meeting. Even so, Goldman remains positive on the medium- to long-term memory outlook, saying supply shortages could persist through 2030, while Yuanta Securities said the Kospi's 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio has fallen to 5.1x, near historically oversold levels seen during the 2008 global financial crisis and the 2020 pandemic.