Stock Market Starts Lower After Holiday... Impact of Rising Interest Rates

On the 16th, KOSPI opened at 2624.69, up 20.45 points (0.79%) from the previous trading day, with dealers working in the Hana Bank dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul. KOSDAQ started at 862.24, up 9.16 points (1.07%) from the previous trading day, and the won-dollar exchange rate began at 1277.0 won, down 7.2 won from the previous trading day. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] On the 7th, the stock market started off lower and has been on a downward trend.

As of 9:22 AM, the KOSPI is at 2646.59, down 0.90% from the previous session. Although individual investors are net buyers with 176.3 billion KRW, foreign investors and institutions are net sellers with 48.9 billion KRW and 134.6 billion KRW respectively, causing the index to decline.

Among all stocks, 616 are showing a downward trend, and the top market capitalization stocks have also turned red. Samsung Electronics, the unwavering market leader, is down 1.05% at 66,100 KRW compared to the previous session. This appears to be a reaction to last week's downward revision of the stock outlook for the US company Micron Technology. SK Hynix's decline is even steeper at 1.87%.

Samsung Biologics and LG Chem are also experiencing significant drops. Samsung Biologics fell 2.46%, and LG Chem dropped 2.74%. Despite news that Samsung Biologics signed a letter of intent for a contract worth 100.5291 billion KRW for biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing with the multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis, its decline has deepened. Meanwhile, LG Energy Solution rose 0.11% to 438,000 KRW.

By sector, electricity and gas (0.69%), transportation equipment (0.40%), and paper and wood (0.08%) are showing notable gains as beneficiaries of inflation. However, the increases are modest.

The KOSDAQ is also down around 1%. At this time, the KOSDAQ stands at 883.13, down 0.94% from the previous session. Foreigners and institutions are net sellers with 47.1 billion KRW and 18.8 billion KRW respectively, but individuals are net buyers with 67 billion KRW, barely preventing a steeper decline.

Among all stocks, 1,032 are declining. Among the top market cap stocks, HLB fell 3.69%, Alteogen 2.82%, and Celltrion Pharm 2.21%, showing significant drops.

Ji-young Han, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, said, "The domestic stock market will start lower today as it absorbs the weakness in major foreign stock markets during the holiday period and the burden of a strong dollar. Since the US stock market narrowed its intraday gains due to the burden of rising 10-year yields re-entering the 3% range, the domestic market is also expected to be influenced by intraday changes in US interest rates."

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