Kioxia shares face headwinds from margin-buying gone wrong

Kioxia Holdings, which makes NAND flash memory used in artificial intelligence servers, is one of Japan’s largest stocks by market capitalization. | BLOOMBERG

Oct 19, 2026

Kioxia Holdings shares face further downward pressure because of a buildup of positions from investors who borrowed to buy the stock on the assumption it would rise and now may need to sell at a loss.

Outstanding leveraged long positions in the stock totaled about ¥920 billion ($5.8 billion) as of Oct. 15, the largest among all companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, according to data from the bourse. Meanwhile, trading activity in Kioxia has declined along with its share price, with turnover dwindling by 84% from its peak to ¥766 billion on Friday, leaving some margin traders at risk of being forced to close out their positions at a lower price than they bought in.

“The problem is that margin buying has become extremely bloated,” said Tomoichiro Kubota, chief market analyst at Matsui Securities. This is a potential source of downward pressure on the price, and there is risk of a deeper fall if retail investors are forced to dump shares as deadlines on their margin positions approach, he said.

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