Concerns Over Delta Variant Spread... KOSPI Trades Around 3280 Level

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] As concerns over the spread of the Delta variant virus increase, risk appetite has declined, causing the KOSPI to slump to the 3280 level.

At 1:48 PM on the 29th, the KOSPI was at 3280.28, down 0.67% (22.16 points) from the previous trading day. The index opened at 3305.36, up 0.10% (3.37 points) from the previous day, but the decline has deepened since. Looking at investor trends, foreigners and institutions sold stocks worth 392 billion KRW and 731.4 billion KRW respectively. Individuals were the only ones to net buy stocks worth 1.1296 trillion KRW.

Seosangyoung, a researcher at Mirae Asset Securities, said, "The index started higher influenced by the rise in the Nasdaq, but as the preference for safe assets increased due to the impact of the Delta variant virus, foreign selling emerged and the market turned downward. Asian markets including China are showing a downward trend due to concerns over the spread of the Delta variant and increased profit-taking."

Among the top market capitalization stocks, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix fell 1.34% and 0.79% respectively compared to the previous day. NAVER (-0.12%), Hyundai Motor (-0.62%), and Celltrion (-0.19%) also declined, while Kakao (0.65%), LG Chem (1.08%), Samsung Biologics (0.12%), and Samsung SDI (0.86%) rose.

Conversely, the KOSDAQ index continued its upward trend in the morning. At the same time, the index stood at 1020.53, up 0.26% (2.62 points) from the previous day. The KOSDAQ opened at 1019.64, up 0.17% (1.73 points) from the previous day, maintaining its rise. Looking at investor trends, individuals alone bought stocks worth 77.2 billion KRW, while foreigners and institutions sold stocks worth 3.8 billion KRW and 47.7 billion KRW respectively.

Among the top market capitalization stocks, Celltrion Healthcare (0.17%), Pearl Abyss (18.42%), EcoPro BM (1.17%), Kakao Games (7.80%), CJ ENM (0.39%), and SK Materials (2.58%) also rose. Researcher Seosangyoung said, "However, the KOSDAQ is showing strength mainly in small and mid-sized IT stocks influenced by the Mobile World Congress (MWC) and the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC)."

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