[Good Morning Stock Market] 'Suneung Stock Market' Opens at 10 AM... Outlook for Individual Stocks

On the 16th, when the KOSPI index started lower due to selling by individuals and foreigners, dealers were working in the Hana Bank dealing room in Euljiro, Seoul. The KOSPI opened at 2,995.68, down 3.84 points (0.13%) from the previous trading day. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] Due to the College Scholastic Ability Test held on the 18th, the Korean stock market will open one hour later at 10 a.m. On that day, the market is expected to start weak as the daily COVID-19 cases surpassed 3,000 and concerns over U.S. inflation intensified.

On the 17th (local time) at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 35,931.05, down 211.17 points (0.58%) from the previous session. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 index fell 12.23 points (0.26%) to 4,688.67, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq index dropped 52.28 points (0.33%) to 15,921.57.

As inflation concerns swept through the market, all indices traced a downward curve. On the same day, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported that housing starts in October decreased by 0.7% from the previous month to 1.52 million units (annualized). The main reason for the decline in housing starts was the rise in construction material prices. The increase in costs due to price hikes caused the slowdown in housing starts, indicating that the economic burden from high inflation continues.

Despite the downward trend in the market, individual stocks such as Tesla and Apple performed well. While Morgan Stanley downgraded Lucid, stating it is still far from success, it recommended Tesla, whose stock price rose about 3.25%. Apple rose 1.65% after announcing the introduction of a consumer self-repair program.

The Korean stock market on that day is expected to show a similar stock-specific market as the previous day. Despite the overall decline in investor sentiment due to inflation concerns, a market with strength in certain stocks is anticipated.

The previous day, the Korean stock market started higher, supported by strong U.S. real economy indicators, but reversed to a decline due to large-scale net selling by foreigners and institutional program selling. However, buying interest flowed into metaverse and NFT-themed stocks, showing strength.

Sangyoung Seo, a researcher at Mirae Asset Securities, said, "Along with inflation concerns and daily new COVID-19 cases exceeding 3,000, worries about domestic demand weakness, selling pressure on electric vehicle companies that recently showed strength, and increased volatility in commodities including international oil prices will also contribute to the market weakness," adding, "The KOSPI is expected to start down about 0.3%."

Meanwhile, due to the College Scholastic Ability Test, the regular trading hours of the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets will be changed to 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The pre-market session will also be delayed by one hour, running from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. The post-market session will start one hour later at 4:40 p.m. but will close at 6 p.m. as usual. In the derivatives market, the opening and closing times for stock and interest rate products will also be postponed by one hour.

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