On the 11th, a triple witching day for futures and options (quadruple witching), the KOSPI rose by nearly 1%, rewriting its all-time high for the second straight day. Although President Lee Jae-myung did not speak clearly about easing the major shareholder threshold for stock capital gains taxes, briefly giving back gains, the index widened its advance in the afternoon.
The KOSPI closed at 3,344.20, up 29.67 points (0.90%) from the previous day. It opened at 3,336.60, up 22.07 points (0.67%) from the previous session, and surged to as high as 3,344.70 during the day, but after President Lee's 100th-day-in-office press briefing, profit-taking emerged and the index slipped back below the 3,340 level.
Regarding the major shareholder threshold, the president said, "If stock market activation would be hindered, there is no need to insist on the existing government plan," adding, "I do not necessarily think the 5 billion won threshold must be lowered to 1 billion won." He added, "I plan to leave the discussion to the National Assembly," but did not give a definitive answer.
However, as buying by foreigners and institutions poured in, the index widened its gains again in the afternoon. In the end, the index hit all-time highs on both an intraday and closing basis. In the KOSPI market, foreign investors and institutions were net buyers of 168.9 billion won and 672.8 billion won, respectively. Only individuals showed a net selling advantage of 869.6 billion won.
Chip bellwethers Samsung Electronics and SK hynix were strong. Samsung Electronics ended the transaction up 800 won (1.10%) at 73,400 won. The preferred share Samsung Electronics (1P) also rose 0.17%. SK hynix closed up 0.99% at 307,000 won. Right after the open, it rose to 315,000 won, marking a 1-year intraday high. Overnight, Oracle's sharp rise on the New York stock market appeared to spur investor sentiment toward domestic semiconductor stocks.
In addition, LG Energy Solution, Samsung Biologics, Hanwha Aerospace, Hyundai Motor, and Kia ended the day "in the red." By contrast, financials such as KB Financial closed broadly lower. Their share prices had surged on expectations for recent tax reform plans, but the day's moves appeared to reflect profit-taking.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics was also strong as brokerages raised their target prices in succession. Samsung Electro-Mechanics ended the transaction up 7,500 won (4.16%) at 188,000 won, and set a 1-year intraday high.
Han Ji-young, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, said, "Although the president revealed a position on major shareholder capital gains taxes at the press conference, since it is information already known to the market, unless talk emerges about raising the threshold, investors should be prepared for 'sell on' profit-taking flows."
The KOSDAQ closed at 834.76, up 1.76 points (0.21%) from the previous session. In the KOSDAQ market, individuals and institutions were net buyers of 46.6 billion won and 30.6 billion won, respectively. Foreign investors moved to "sell," offloading 66.4 billion won.
Among the top market-cap stocks, shares including the "bellwether" Alteogen, Ecopro, and Sam Chun Dang Pharm finished the transaction at lower prices than the previous day. In contrast, ECOPRO BM, Peptron, PharmaResearch, ABL Bio, LigaChem Biosciences, Rainbow Robotics, and HLB closed higher.
On the KOSDAQ that day, Global Tax Free drew attention as a beneficiary after the president mentioned "plastic surgery tourism" as a way to boost the tourism industry. Global Tax Free closed at 5,830 won, up 670 won (12.98%) from the previous session. As the president emphasized the importance of plastic surgery tourism, some calls to extend the value-added taxes refund program for foreign patients gained traction, which appeared to spur buying in Global Tax Free, Asia's first tax refund agency operator.
In the Seoul foreign exchange market, as of 3:30 p.m., the won-dollar exchange rate stood at 1,391.8 won, up 5.2 won from the previous day.