South Korea's benchmark KOSPI index fell for a third straight session Thursday, extending one of the steepest market corrections in the country's history even as Samsung Electronics reported record quarterly earnings, underscoring how deeply investor anxiety over artificial intelligence spending and semiconductor valuations has come to dominate trading in Seoul.

The KOSPI closed at 5,593.56, down 69.68 points, or 1.23%, after briefly attempting to reclaim the 6,000-point threshold earlier in the session. The index opened higher, up 18.53 points, or 0.33%, at 5,681.77, and at one point in the morning posted gains of more than 5%, before that momentum reversed and losses deepened through the afternoon. The KOSPI has now dropped 1,162.19 points, or 17%, over the past three trading sessions alone.

The tech-heavy KOSDAQ index fared even worse Thursday, closing at 644.78, down 17.90 points, or 2.70%, marking its own third consecutive daily decline. Trading throughout the day showed extreme intraday volatility across both indexes, reflecting continued uncertainty about the semiconductor sector even as some investors moved to buy shares they viewed as oversold following the market's historic recent selloff.

The session's central paradox centered on Samsung Electronics, which reported record second-quarter earnings but still could not lift the broader index. Samsung's........

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