Domestic Stock Market Sees Widening Losses in Afternoon... KOSPI Breaks Below 2610 Level

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] On the afternoon of the 9th, the domestic stock market is widening its losses.

The KOSPI index, as of 2:07 PM, is at 2609.45, down 35.06 points (1.33%) from the previous trading day. This is the lowest level since the intraday low of 2605.81 recorded on March 8. The KOSPI has been on a five-day losing streak since the 5th of this month. On this day, foreigners sold a net 184.5 billion KRW, institutions sold about 229.8 billion KRW, while individuals bought about 394.7 billion KRW to support the index.

Among the top market capitalization stocks, Samsung SDI fell the most, down 3.24%. This was followed by LG Chem (-3.08%), LG Energy Solution (-2.37%), Kia (-1.79%), Hyundai Motor (-0.55%), and Samsung Electronics (-0.45%). Naver (NAVER) (1.29%) and SK Hynix (0.47%) showed gains.

By sector, only banks (1.14%) and telecommunications (0.20%) showed gains, while all others declined. Notably, textiles and apparel (-3.30%), construction (-2.98%), and non-metallic minerals (-2.89%) showed significant declines.

The KOSDAQ index fell 22.20 points (2.51%) from the previous session to 862.02. Similar to the KOSPI, both foreigners and institutions were net sellers, offloading about 83.4 billion KRW and 73.0 billion KRW respectively. Meanwhile, individuals were net buyers with 158.0 billion KRW.

Among the top market capitalization stocks, all showed declines. Cheonbo (-4.38%), L&F (-2.56%), Pearl Abyss (-2.25%), and EcoPro BM (-2.14%) fell in that order.

Lee Jae-sun, a researcher at Hyundai Motor Securities, explained, "There are concerns about market volatility due to inflation. Additionally, the strengthened lockdowns in China due to COVID-19 are affecting the overall Asian stock markets."

Kim Hyung-ryul, head of the Research Center at Kyobo Securities, said, "Just because the U.S. raised the benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points (1bp = 0.01 percentage points) does not mean all uncertainties have disappeared. It will take time for the market to build resilience against policy uncertainties."

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