Foreign Investors Sell Off as KOSPI Falls Below 7,400

Foreign Investors Sell Over 1 Trillion Won on KOSPI
KOSDAQ Turns Weak

On May 19, the KOSPI started the session with a downward trend, falling below the 7,400 mark in early trading.

As of 9:47 a.m. on this day, the KOSPI index was trading at 7,349.22, down 166.8 points (2.22%) from the previous session. The index opened at 7,425.66, a decrease of 90.38 points (1.20%), and continued to decline. Foreign investors have net sold 1.654 trillion won worth of shares. Institutions have net purchased 51.9 billion won, while retail investors have net purchased 1.569 trillion won.

On the 19th, the KOSPI index and others are displayed on the status board in the dealing room of Hana Bank in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News.

By sector, electricity & gas (up 3.25%) and insurance (up 1.21%) posted gains. In contrast, machinery & equipment (down 3.00%), distribution (down 2.74%), telecommunications (down 1.72%), and construction (down 1.64%) were weak.

Concerns over memory supply bottlenecks originating in the United States are also affecting the Korean stock market. The CEO of Seagate, a U.S.-based data storage company, stated at the JP Morgan Conference on this day, "It takes a long time to bring in new factories and new equipment." Following these remarks, worries over shipment restrictions due to supply constraints and concerns that growth has peaked became prominent.

Among major stocks by market capitalization, Hanwha Aerospace (up 7.50%), HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (up 2.11%), Shinhan Financial Group (up 1.83%), and Samsung Life Insurance (up 0.80%) rose. In contrast, Hyundai Motor (down 5.58%), Hyundai Mobis (down 4.73%), Samsung C&T (down 4.26%), Kia (down 3.02%), Samsung Electronics Preferred (down 2.86%), Samsung Electro-Mechanics (down 2.81%), HD Hyundai Electric (down 2.62%), SK Square (down 2.38%), Doosan Enerbility (down 2.23%), Samsung Electronics (down 1.51%), Samsung SDI (down 1.31%), SK hynix (down 1.14%), and Samsung Biologics (down 1.08%) declined.

At the same time, the KOSDAQ index was at 1,100.94, down 10.15 points (0.91%) from the previous session. The KOSDAQ opened at 1,111.36, up 0.27 points (0.02%), before turning weak. Foreign investors sold a net 137.3 billion won, while institutions and retail investors bought a net 61.2 billion won and 119.4 billion won, respectively.

Among the top KOSDAQ stocks by market capitalization, Padu (up 6.07%), Alteogen (up 3.78%), Samchundang Pharm (up 2.01%), Ecopro BM (up 1.63%), and HPSP (up 0.77%) advanced. Conversely, Legochem Biosciences (down 6.85%), Rainbow Robotics (down 4.83%), Seojin System (down 1.65%), Voronoi (down 1.80%), and ISC (down 1.20%) were weak.

Meanwhile, on the 18th (local time), the three major U.S. indices ended mixed. On the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 49,686.12, up 159.95 points (0.32%) from the previous session. The large-cap S&P 500 index fell by 5.45 points (0.07%) to 7,403.05, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq index dropped 134.411 points (0.51%) to 26,090.734.

Following the CEO's remarks, Seagate plunged about 7%, and its competitor Micron Technology also fell around 6%. Western Digital dropped 4.8%, SanDisk 5.3%, Nvidia 1.37%, and Broadcom 1.05% as well.

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