KOSPI Stays Around 7,900... KOSDAQ Turns Downward

Continued Sell-Off by Foreign and Institutional Investors

Both the KOSPI and KOSDAQ indices showed signs of losing momentum in the early session. While the KOSPI fluctuated around the 7,900 level, the KOSDAQ turned downward.

As of 1:56 p.m. on May 14, the KOSPI stood at 7,895.76, up 0.66% from the previous day.

Foreign investors and institutions continued their selling trend. Foreign investors had already net sold 2.9518 trillion won, and institutions offloaded 599.4 billion won. Only individual investors were net buyers, purchasing 3.3366 trillion won in total.

Most sectors remained strong. Several sectors, including Food, Beverage & Tobacco (6.40%), Insurance (4.84%), Entertainment & Culture (4.73%), Medical & Precision Instruments (4.04%), IT Services (3.55%), Construction (3.27%), Distribution (2.84%), Textiles & Apparel (2.39%), and Non-metallic Minerals (2.07%), gained more than 2%. However, Electric & Gas Utilities (-3.21%), Machinery & Equipment (-2.43%), Transportation Equipment & Parts (-2.25%), and Transportation & Storage (-1.94%) declined.

Samsung Electronics, the company with the largest market capitalization, rose 3.1%, but SK hynix fell by 1.2%. Although the price surged to 1,994,000 won in the early session, raising hopes for a breakthrough above 2 million won, the atmosphere was subdued due to selling by foreign investors and institutions. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries plunged by as much as 8.4%. Doosan Enerbility also dropped by 3.1%.

At the same time, the KOSDAQ fell 0.14% from the previous day to 1,175.28. Compared to the early session, which started with an increase of nearly 1%, market enthusiasm had cooled.

Similar to the KOSPI, both foreign investors and institutions net sold on the KOSDAQ market. They recorded net sales of 171.6 billion won and 85.5 billion won, respectively, while individuals net bought 273 billion won.

The majority of sectors declined. The biggest drops were in Machinery & Equipment (-2.32%), Transportation Equipment & Parts (-1.89%), and Textiles & Apparel (-1.27%). On the other hand, Entertainment & Culture (3.50%), Publishing & Media Replication (3.45%), Food, Beverage & Tobacco (2.14%), and General Services (2.01%) recorded gains.

Only the top three market cap stocks rose, while the remaining top ten stocks all declined. Alteogen recorded the largest gain at 8.1%. Ecopro BM and Ecopro rose 1.4% and 1.1%, respectively. In contrast, Rainbow Robotics (-4.7%), LIG Nex1 (-3.4%), Samchundang Pharm (-2.5%), HLB (-2.4%), and Lichem Bio (-1.6%) fell.

As the KOSPI index takes a breather just before reaching 8000, on the 14th, an employee is monitoring the stock market and exchange rates in the dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul. On this day, the KOSPI closed at 7,873.91, up 29.90 points (0.38%) from the previous trading day, while the KOSDAQ rose 0.09 points (0.86%) to 1,187.02, and the won/dollar exchange rate opened at 1,489.8 won, down 0.8 won from the previous day. May 14, 2026 Photo by Jo Yongjun

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