KOSPI, Foreigners vs Institutions and Individuals... Ends Slightly Higher

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The KOSPI index closed slightly higher as institutions and individuals defended against strong foreign selling pressure.

On the 20th, the KOSPI index closed at 2,559.74, up 0.53 points (0.02%) from the previous day. The trading volume was 403.4 million shares, and the trading value was tentatively estimated at 7.4067 trillion KRW.

Looking at the trends by investor type, foreigners net sold 167.7 billion KRW, while institutions and individuals net bought 50.9 billion KRW and 87.8 billion KRW respectively, defending the index. Foreigners also showed a net selling trend of 361.2 billion KRW in the futures market. In program trading, there was a net sale of 1.7 billion KRW in arbitrage trading and 135.8 billion KRW in non-arbitrage trading.

The previous day, the New York stock market closed lower due to concerns over inflation factors ahead of the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), raising the possibility of an upward revision of next year’s interest rate outlook, which led to a weak start for the KOSPI. Afterwards, foreigners sold both spot and futures, pulling the index down, but in the late session, KOSPI secondary battery stocks rebounded, recovering some of the losses.

By sector, the transportation and warehousing sector rose 1.94%, transportation equipment 1.66%, paper and wood 1.15%, electric and gas utilities 1.07%, telecommunications 0.84%, distribution 0.53%, and steel and metals 0.43%. On the other hand, the medical precision sector fell 1.77%, pharmaceuticals -1.33%, machinery -1.09%, and services -0.82%.

Among the top market capitalization stocks, Samsung Electronics fell 0.29%, SK Hynix -1.01%, Samsung Biologics -1.37%, LG Chem -0.18%, and NAVER -0.91%. Conversely, LG Energy Solution rose 0.6%, POSCO Holdings 0.17%, Hyundai Motor 2.58%, and Samsung SDI 0.9%.

On the same day, the KOSDAQ index closed lower as institutions and foreigners both sold. The KOSDAQ index closed at 882.72, down 1.17 points (0.13%) from the previous day. By investor type, institutions and foreigners net sold 32.7 billion KRW and 110.3 billion KRW respectively, while individuals net bought 169.1 billion KRW.

Among the top market capitalization stocks, EcoPro BM and EcoPro rose 4.5% and 7.08% respectively, and POSCO DX 0.18%, L&F 0.7% also increased. On the other hand, Celltrion Healthcare fell 0.16%, HLB -2.52%, JYP Ent. -0.73%, and Alteogen -4.15% closed lower.

Meanwhile, in the Seoul foreign exchange market, the KRW/USD exchange rate closed at 1,330.1 won, up 1.6 won from the previous day.

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