KOSPI, Institutions and Foreigners Net Sell... Weakness for Two Consecutive Days

The KOSPI index recorded a decline for the second consecutive day, pressured by net selling from institutions and foreigners.

On the 20th, the KOSPI index closed at 2,604.91, down 4.59 points (0.18%) from the previous day. Trading volume was 712.81 million shares, and the trading value totaled 10.7231 trillion won.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Looking at the trends by investor type, institutions and foreigners net sold 135.4 billion won and 281.8 billion won respectively, while individuals net bought 409.9 billion won. Program trading saw net buying of 4.6 billion won in arbitrage trading and net selling of 231.2 billion won in non-arbitrage trading.

The previous day, the New York Stock Exchange was closed for the Juneteenth holiday, which marks the complete abolition of slavery in Texas. European markets experienced sharp declines. Concerns over continued tightening in July following the European Central Bank (ECB) monetary policy, downward revisions to China's economic growth rate, and a surge in natural gas prices acted as downward factors, causing major European indices to fall around 1%.

In response, the KOSPI index, which started lower, narrowed its losses amid expectations that U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken's visit to China could ease U.S.-China tensions.

Sector performance was mixed. Steel and metals fell 1.38%, insurance -1.29%, construction -1.19%, food and beverages -0.79%, chemicals -0.69%, pharmaceuticals -0.67%, and finance -0.52% all showed weakness. Conversely, the medical precision sector rose 1.94%, transportation and warehousing increased 0.69%, and transportation equipment gained 0.58%.

Most of the top market capitalization stocks declined. Market leader Samsung Electronics closed at 71,400 won, up 0.28% from the previous trading day. LG Energy Solution ended flat, and SK Hynix rose 1.13%. Meanwhile, Samsung Biologics fell 0.65%, LG Chem -1.73%, Samsung SDI -1.82%, Hyundai Motor -0.70%, Kia -0.73%, POSCO Holdings -1.66%, and NAVER -0.05% all declined.

The KOSDAQ index also underperformed. It closed at 886.41, down 2.2 points (0.25%) from the previous day. By investor type, institutions and foreigners net sold 70.7 billion won and 21.3 billion won respectively, while individuals net bought 112 billion won.

Top market capitalization stocks showed mixed movements. EcoPro BM and EcoPro fell 1.87% and 0.91% respectively, while Celltrion Healthcare dropped 1.84%, L&F -0.78%, HLB -2.13%, Celltrion Pharm -2.09%, and Kakao Games -0.95% were weak. On the other hand, JYP Ent. rose 1.98%, Pearl Abyss 0.78%, Osstem Implant 0.11%, and SM Entertainment 2.52% increased.

Meanwhile, in the Seoul foreign exchange market, the won/dollar exchange rate closed at 1,280.3 won, down 1.7 won from the previous day.

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