KOSPI Rises for Second Day... Continued Net Buying by Foreign Investors

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] On the morning of the 17th, the KOSPI continued its upward trend amid ongoing inflows from foreign investors.

As of 10:31 AM, the KOSPI stood at 2761.51, up 1.17% from the previous session. Unlike earlier in the session, the continued inflow of foreign capital is driving the index higher. At this time, foreign and institutional investors showed net buying intentions of 224.4 billion KRW and 52.6 billion KRW, respectively. The favorable environment, including the KRW-USD exchange rate falling 0.05% to 1197.00, appears to be supporting the inflow of foreign capital.

Among all listed stocks, 757 are showing gains. Samsung Electronics, the KOSPI heavyweight, recorded a 0.40% increase to 75,100 KRW, reversing the mixed trend seen earlier in the session. Following this, LG Energy Solution, the leader in secondary batteries, rose 0.22%, and Samsung SDI jumped 4.07%. On the other hand, LG Chem (down 0.61%) and Kakao (down 0.54%) showed weakness.

On this day, Heung-A Shipping hit the upper limit price (29.86%) in the morning session. This rise appears to be driven by expectations that the logistics crisis in the shipping market will continue. Korea Investment & Securities recently stated in a report, "The benefits from the logistics crisis in the shipping market are expected to continue this year as well," adding, "The average SCFI (Shanghai Containerized Freight Index) for the first quarter of this year is 8% higher than the fourth quarter of last year. Considering the time lag in reflecting earnings, profits are expected to continue increasing in the first quarter."

Besides Heung-A Shipping, the transportation and warehousing sector (up 3.99%) showed significant gains, with HMM rising 10.10% and Korea Line Corporation up 4.30%. The machinery sector (up 2.21%) and construction sector (up 2.16%) also maintained upward momentum.

The KOSDAQ index is also up 0.72% at 884.51 at this time. Individual and institutional investors are net buying 99.5 billion KRW and 10.7 billion KRW, respectively. Foreign investors, who had made large net purchases the previous day, are now net selling 104.1 billion KRW.

Among the top market cap stocks, EcoPro BM rose 3.59%, the highest increase among the top 10 stocks. Following this, Celltrion Healthcare (up 0.81%), HLB (up 0.16%), Celltrion Pharm (up 0.46%), and Chunbo (up 0.21%) also showed gains.

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