Institutions Selling Off... KOSPI Starts Lower

KOSDAQ Also Starts Lower

[Asia Economy Reporter Gong Byung-sun] The KOSPI is showing a downward trend in the early session due to institutional selling pressure.

On the 4th, the KOSPI opened at 3,246.17, down 0.04% (1.26 points) from the previous trading day. It even dropped to 3,224.50 at 9:33 a.m. that day.

Institutional selling is strong. Institutions net sold 199.3 billion KRW on the day. Individuals and foreigners net bought 135.1 billion KRW and 61.3 billion KRW, respectively.

Sector indices are mixed. The service sector recorded the largest decline at 1.23%. This was followed by telecommunications (-1.20%), transportation and warehousing (-0.93%), distribution (-0.87%), and electrical and electronics (-0.76%). Meanwhile, banking (2.24%), electric and gas utilities (1.08%), transportation equipment (1.05%), construction (0.77%), textiles and apparel (0.60%), and machinery (0.49%) rose.

Most of the top 10 market capitalization stocks showed weakness. Kakao’s decline was the largest at 1.58%. This was followed by SK Hynix (-1.55%), NAVER (-1.52%), Samsung Electronics (-0.85%), Celltrion (-0.75%), LG Chem (-0.62%), Samsung Biologics (-0.61%), and Samsung SDI (-0.32%). Kia (0.92%) and Hyundai Motor (0.63%) rose.

The KOSDAQ opened at 990.16, down 0.00% (0.03 points) from the previous trading day. It also dropped to 984.30 at 9:34 a.m.

Foreigners and institutions’ selling pressure led to the index decline. Foreigners and institutions net sold 46.9 billion KRW and 15.3 billion KRW, respectively. Individuals net bought 66.2 billion KRW.

Most sectors showed weakness. The semiconductor sector had the largest decline at 1.22%, followed by entertainment and culture (-1.13%), other manufacturing (-0.90%), IT hardware (-0.65%), and paper and wood (-0.63%). Meanwhile, computer services (1.13%), construction (0.52%), telecommunications equipment (0.41%), publishing and media reproduction (0.41%), and food and tobacco (0.14%) rose.

All of the top 10 market capitalization stocks except Kakao Games declined. SK Materials had the largest drop at 1.73%, followed by Alteogen (-1.68%), HLB (-1.33%), Seegene (-1.09%), Celltrion Pharm (-1.02%), EcoPro BM (-0.96%), CJ ENM (-0.83%), Celltrion Healthcare (-0.68%), and Pearl Abyss (-0.17%). Kakao Games rose 1.45%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.