Shares in South Korea's Elice Group collapsed as much as 33% on their trading debut in Seoul on Tuesday, an opening-day wipeout for the Kosdaq's biggest IPO of 2026. The stock sank to 61,000 won from its 90,500 won offer price before bargain-hunting steadied it in the mid-60,000s, erasing roughly 305 billion won — about $225 million — of market value in a single session.
The benchmark Kospi slid 3.2% to 5,587.27 by mid-morning. Foreigners dumped 605.8 billion won ($456 million) of Korean shares and institutions sold 470.7 billion, while domestic retail bought 832.1 billion won into the decline. SK Hynix fell 3.6% to 1,231,000 won, dipping below 1.2 million for the first time in roughly six months, and Samsung lost 1.5% to 214,500 won.
The contrast with New York was stark: the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index had climbed 1.6% on Monday, snapping an eight-session losing streak, and the Nasdaq rose 1.1% to 26,430.89. Seoul's pain was homegrown. The US 10-year yield held at 5.13–5.14% on Tuesday, a direct descendant of September's hot CPI (3.7%) and PPI (6.3%) prints that keep a Fed hike at the Oct 27–28 meeting on the table.
Why it matters
The numbers tell a story of expectations outrunning evidence. At the 90,500 won offer price — the top of its marketed range — Elice carried a pre-listing valuation of about 1.0054 trillion won, roughly 49 times its first-half operating profit annualized. By mid-morning the market cap had shriveled toward 700 billion won. Yet 2,367 institutions fought for allocations at 388.84 times coverage, and retail subscribers piled roughly 10.3 trillion won into deposits. Book-building enthusiasm and aftermarket appetite turned out to be two different trades.
Elice is no speculative shell. Founded in 2015 by three KAIST doctorate students, it posted first-half revenue of 34.4 billion won (a 200% surge per its prospectus), a 10.3-billion-won operating profit, and EBITDA grew more than 11 times to 23.2 billion won — yet in Tuesday's tape, profitability stopped being enough. As Petra Capital's Albert Yong put it, sentiment toward AI infrastructure "weakened, particularly in the US" — a verdict Tuesday's tape supports. The sector backdrop is bleak — Firmus Grid cancelled its Sydney listing this month, AirTrunk shelved a Singapore REIT IPO, CoreWeave has lost more than half its value since May.
Tuesday also marked another milestone in Korea's October chip rout: after the 3% rebound on Oct 16, the slide puts the Kospi back on track for one of its worst months. President Lee Jae Myung called the market undervalued on Monday after a 16% plunge so far this month — implying the index began October near 6,650.
What to watch
- Meta reports Wednesday, with Tesla, Lam Research and Texas Instruments following this week. The verdict on hyperscaler capex — Goldman expects roughly $1.2 trillion next year — decides whether Tuesday was capitulation or a rerating.
- Elice's first-week trading: does the stock hold above 60,000 won, or do IPO allocations keep hitting the market?
- The Solidigm listing decision and Seoul's duplicate-listing review — a live overhang on SK Hynix.
- US 10-year yield and Oct 27–28 Fed pricing: the macro lid on AI valuations, repriced after the hot September CPI.
| IPO item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Offer price | 90,500 won (top of marketed range) |
| Amount raised | 201.1bn won (~$150mn) |
| Institutional demand | 388.84x (2,367 institutions) |
| Retail demand | ~408x (~10.3tn won deposits) |
| H1 revenue | 34.4bn won (+200%) |
| H1 operating profit | 10.3bn won |
| H1 EBITDA | 23.2bn won (up 11x) |
| Debut intraday low | 61,000 won (-33%) |
| Pre-listing market cap | 1.0054tn won |
| Market cap on the slide | ~700bn won |
MarketRadar take
Bearish for the AI-infrastructure trade near term; defensively positioned on Korean equities. The Elice debut reads less like a company-specific failure and more like a market repricing what "profitable growth" is worth when money costs over 5% — a ~49-times earnings multiple set at the top of the range had almost no margin for error. The tape's tell is the flow split: foreigners and institutions sold over 1 trillion won combined while domestic retail bought the dip. Until the 10-year yield and the Oct 27–28 Fed meeting settle the rate path, AI-adjacent valuations have a ceiling — and every new IPO is a live referendum on it.
