On the 26th, the KOSPI started higher on expectations for a year-end global "Santa rally." A Santa rally refers to stock prices rising on the last five trading days of the year and the first two trading days of the new year on the New York stock market.
As of 9:08 a.m. that day, the KOSPI was up 24.32 points (0.59%) from the previous trading day at 4,132.94. The KOSPI began the session at 4,130.37, up 0.53% from the previous trading day.
In the main board, institutions and foreigners were net buyers of 67.8 billion won and 7.4 billion won, respectively. Individuals were selling about 80.1 billion won worth of shares.
Top market-cap stocks were mixed. Samsung Electronics and SK hynix were up 2.34% and 1.19%, respectively, and Hanwha Aerospace was also rising 1.48%. In contrast, LG Energy Solution (-1.28%), Doosan Enerbility (-0.92%), Hyundai Motor (-0.35%), KB Financial (-0.24%), and Samsung Biologics (-0.12%) were falling.
At the same time, the KOSDAQ was up 5.46 points (0.60%) from the previous trading day at 920.66. The KOSDAQ started at 920.90, up 0.62% from the previous trading day.
In the KOSDAQ market, only individuals were net buyers, at about 40.5 billion won, while foreigners and institutions were net sellers of 38.6 billion won and 500 million won, respectively.
Most top KOSDAQ market-cap stocks were strong. Alteogen was surging more than 4%, and ABL Bio (0.80%), EcoPro (0.72%), Peptron (0.65%), LigaChem Biosciences (0.46%), and EcoPro BM (0.32%) were also rising. Kolon TissueGene (-1.09%), Sam Chun Dang Pharm (-0.92%), Rainbow Robotics (-0.52%), and HLB (-0.43%) were declining.
In the Seoul foreign exchange market that day, the won-dollar exchange rate opened at 1,449.9 won per $1, up 0.1 won from the previous trading day.
Meanwhile, on the 24th (local time), the previous trading day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 48,731.16, up 0.60% from the previous trading day. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 rose 0.32% to 6,932.05, and the Nasdaq gained 0.22% to 23,613.31.
The S&P 500 again set a record high on a closing basis, following the previous day. Buying was supported largely by expectations that the year-end and New Year "Santa rally" could continue ahead of the Christmas holiday.
After U.S. third-quarter growth announced the previous day came in at 4.3% (quarter-over-quarter annualized), far exceeding expectations, investors expected corporations to continue to post solid results next year.