Foreign Selling Pressure... KOSPI and KOSDAQ Close Lower Together

On the 28th, both the KOSPI and KOSDAQ closed lower. The market started off with a firm tone in the early session, but the indices declined due to foreign selling pressure during the trading hours.

On that day, the KOSPI closed at 2,564.19, down 17.20 points (0.67%) from the previous session. Foreign investors net sold 398.5 billion KRW in a single day. Although individual and institutional investors bought 301.6 billion KRW and 56.2 billion KRW respectively, it was not enough to prevent the index from falling.

Among the top market capitalization groups in the KOSPI market, Samsung Electronics (0.14%), SK Hynix (1.15%), and Kia (0.23%) closed higher. On the other hand, LG Energy Solution (-2.50%), Samsung Biologics (-0.80%), LG Chem (-5.83%), Samsung SDI (-3.10%), and POSCO Holdings (-3.47%) declined. In particular, stocks related to secondary batteries experienced significant drops.

Kim Seok-hwan, a researcher at Mirae Asset Securities, said, "With anticipation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's speech tonight and Micron's earnings announcement, cautious sentiment expanded," adding, "The increase in foreign selling in both spot and futures markets and the rise in the KRW-USD exchange rate appeared to be burdensome." Regarding the weakness in petrochemical stocks such as LG Chem, SK Innovation, and Lotte Chemical, he analyzed, "Concerns over declining profitability due to weak demand and oversupply of petrochemical products amid a global manufacturing recession have intensified," and "Negative factors also included news of LG Chem's naphtha cracker shutdown and the start of full-scale restructuring."

The KOSDAQ closed at 866.97, down 7.17 points (0.82%). Similarly, foreign investors net sold 153.7 billion KRW. Individual and institutional investors net bought 138.4 billion KRW and 35.4 billion KRW respectively.

Among the top market capitalization groups in the KOSDAQ, most stocks closed lower or unchanged from the previous day, except for HLB (0.79%). EcoPro BM (-4.52%), EcoPro (-5.15%), and L&F (-5.35%) showed declines around the 5% range.

Meanwhile, in the Seoul foreign exchange market, the KRW-USD exchange rate closed at 1,307.3 KRW, up 7.0 KRW from the previous session.

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