On July 17, iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) fell 5.03% in regular trading, trading at $162.88/share, with turnover of $1.849 billion.

On the news front, the Bank of Korea raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 2.75%, its first hike in three and a half years, with a unanimous vote. Simultaneously, Korea's Financial Services Commission announced a sharp tightening of single-stock leveraged ETF regulations, tripling the minimum margin requirement to 30 million Korean won, capping each transaction at 20 shares, and banning new single-stock leveraged product listings.

The dual blow of monetary tightening and regulatory crackdown triggered a 6.90% plunge in the KOSPI index, activating the eighth circuit breaker of the year. Semiconductor heavyweights bore the brunt, with SK Hynix plunging over 11% and Samsung Electronics dropping nearly 9%. Market analysts note that Korea's leveraged ETF deleveraging progress remains only 30%-40% complete, with over 320,000 accounts already wiped out, suggesting the liquidity crisis has yet to bottom.

The fund generally invests at least 80% of its assets in the component securities of its underlying index, designed to measure the performance of the large- and mid-capitalization segments of the Korean equity market.

(The above content is based on publicly available market information, generated by a program or algorithm, and is intended solely as a stock movement alert. It does not constitute investment advice or a basis for trading decisions.)