KOSPI Ends Lower Pressured by Foreigners Leaving Amid Sharp Rise in Exchange Rate

The KOSPI index closed lower, pressured by foreign selling.

On the 24th, the KOSPI index closed at 2523.50, down 20.90 points (0.82%) from the previous day. The trading volume for the day was 914.5 million shares, with a trading value of 11.3557 trillion won.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

By investor type, institutions were net buyers with 104.1 billion won, while foreigners and individuals were net sellers of 34.6 billion won and 80.9 billion won, respectively. In program trading, there was a net sale of 100 million won in arbitrage trading and 58.1 billion won in non-arbitrage trading.

The KOSPI index, which started lower that day, widened its losses due to foreign selling triggered by a rise in the exchange rate. The won/dollar exchange rate surged more than 8 won intraday. Additionally, caution ahead of major U.S. big tech earnings announcements and key economic indicators added to the pressure.

Furthermore, a large volume of sell orders poured out from the SG Securities window in the market that day, causing several stocks to hit their lower limits and dragging the index down.

By sector, the electric and gas industry plunged 8.21%, showing a sharp decline. Non-metallic minerals fell 3.36%, transportation and warehousing 2.02%, construction 2.0%, telecommunications 1.87%, securities 1.85%, paper and wood 1.49%, and medical precision 1.48% also showed weakness. On the other hand, transportation equipment rose 1.12%, and textiles and apparel gained 0.8%, closing stronger.

Among the top market capitalization stocks, performances were mixed. Samsung Electronics remained slightly down by 0.76%, LG Energy Solution fell 1.05%, SK Hynix dropped 2.13%, LG Chem declined 0.52%, Samsung SDI decreased 1.09%, and NAVER slipped 0.16%. Conversely, Samsung Biologics rose 1.53%, Hyundai Motor gained 0.79%, Kia increased 1.68%, and POSCO Holdings closed up 0.63%.

The KOSDAQ index also showed a sharp decline that day. The KOSDAQ index closed at 855.23, down 13.59 points (1.56%) from the previous day. By investor type, institutions and foreigners were net sellers of 117 billion won and 24.8 billion won, respectively, while individuals were net buyers of 174.8 billion won.

Most of the top market capitalization stocks on KOSDAQ fell. EcoPro BM showed a slight decline of 0.55%, Celltrion Healthcare dropped 1.29%, L&F fell 5.12%, HLB declined 2.72%, Celltrion Pharm decreased 1.18%, and Kakao Games slipped 0.37%. In contrast, EcoPro rose strongly by 4.18%.

Meanwhile, in the Seoul foreign exchange market, the won/dollar exchange rate closed at 1334.8 won, up 6.6 won from the previous day.

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