Foreigners and Institutions 'Sell' Pressure Pushes KOSPI Down... 'Service Suspension' Kakao Drops 9.14%

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] The KOSPI index opened lower on the 17th as foreign and institutional investors continued to sell.

As of 9:12 a.m., the KOSPI index was recorded at 2,186.63, down 25.92 points (1.17%) from the previous trading day. The index opened at 2,187.17, down 25.38 points (1.15%) from the previous day, falling below the 2,200 mark for the first time in one trading day. Foreigners and institutions sold approximately 42.5 billion KRW and 79.9 billion KRW respectively, while individual investors were the sole net buyers with about 122.1 billion KRW.

Kakao, which experienced a data center fire, fell 9.14%, marking the largest decline among the top market capitalization stocks.

The KOSDAQ index also declined. At the same time, the KOSDAQ index was down 8.83 points (1.30%) to 669.41. The index closed at 678.24 on the previous trading day but fell below the 670 level today. Foreigners and institutions net sold stocks worth 3.3 billion KRW and 21.9 billion KRW respectively, while individuals net bought about 33 billion KRW.

On the 14th (local time), the U.S. stock market closed lower due to rising expected inflation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 403.89 points (1.34%) to 29,634.83, the large-cap S&P 500 index dropped 86.84 points (2.37%) to 3,583.07, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq index declined 327.76 points (3.08%) to 13,021.39. According to the University of Michigan, the median expected inflation for the next year rose to 5.1% from 4.7% the previous month. The 5-year expected inflation also increased from 2.7% to 2.9%. This sparked fears of inflation and concerns over Federal Reserve (Fed) tightening.

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