KOSPI Pauses as Caution Over Potential U.S.-China Summit Cancellation Keeps Market Range-Bound

On October 22, the domestic stock market opened lower. This is believed to be due to fatigue from a recent short-term rally and growing concerns over the possible cancellation of a U.S.-China summit.

As of 9:20 a.m. on this day, the KOSPI was trading at 3,813.23, down 10.61 points (0.28%) from the previous day. Earlier, the index had started at 3,827.23, up 3.39 points (0.09%) from the previous session, but turned weak as caution over the potential cancellation of the U.S.-China summit and profit-taking sentiment spread.

While individual investors bought a net 311.1 billion won, foreign investors and institutions sold a net 214.7 billion won and 104.9 billion won, respectively. In the KOSPI200 futures market, institutions purchased a net 211.3 billion won, while individuals and foreign investors sold 87.9 billion won and 119.6 billion won, respectively.

Yonhap News Agency

The top KOSPI stocks by market capitalization showed mixed performance. Doosan Enerbility (-2.75%), SK Hynix (-1.57%), Samsung Electronics (-1.23%), and KB Financial Group (-1.12%) were on the decline, while LG Energy Solution (3.43%), Hanwha Aerospace (2.57%), HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (0.98%), Samsung Biologics (0.44%), and Kia (0.43%) were on the rise.

At the same time, the KOSDAQ was trading at 867.93, down 4.57 points (0.52%) from the previous day. The index had started flat at 872.51, but the decline widened. While individual investors bought a net 136.2 billion won, foreign investors and institutions sold 111 billion won and 26.3 billion won, respectively.

The top KOSDAQ stocks by market capitalization also showed mixed performance. HLB (-3.17%), Rainbow Robotics (-1.47%), Peptron (-1.28%), Samchundang Pharm (-1.21%), and ABL Bio (-0.91%) were weak, while Ecopro (13.31%), Ecopro BM (3.13%), PharmaResearch (2.47%), and Alteogen (0.11%) were strong.

By sector, chemicals (+3.38%), transportation and logistics (+3.14%), electrical products (+2.15%), shipping companies (+1.95%), and cosmetics (+1.47%) were on the rise. In contrast, media services (-2.45%), non-ferrous metals (-2.14%), electronic equipment and devices (-2.07%), securities (-1.87%), and semiconductors and semiconductor equipment (-1.46%) were under adjustment.

On the Seoul foreign exchange market, the Korean won opened at 1,431.5 won per U.S. dollar, up 3.7 won from the previous day. This is interpreted as a result of the recent trend of a weaker yen and a stronger dollar. This is the highest opening price in about six months, since May 2 (1,436.0 won).

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