After plunging more than 5%, the KOSPI is trimming losses and reclaiming the 8,000 level. As individuals and institutions turn to net buying alongside strong net selling by foreigners, the index is narrowing its decline.
As of 11:09 a.m. on the 12th, the KOSPI is down 191.15 points (2.3%) from the previous trading day, moving around the 8,110 level.
Starting at 7,933.10, down 4.46% from the previous trading day, the KOSPI at one point widened losses to more than 5% after the open, triggering a sell-sidecar. From 10 a.m., it turned higher and has since been swinging above the 8,000 level.
In the Korea Exchange main board, foreign investors are net sellers of more than 3.8 trillion won. Individuals and institutions are net buyers of more than 2.4 trillion won and more than 1.3 trillion won, respectively, weakening the strong selling by foreigners.
The KOSDAQ market has slightly widened its decline. After starting trading at 904.53, down 24.82 points (2.67%) from the previous trading day, the KOSDAQ was down 3.4% at 897.68 as of 11:09 a.m. In the KOSDAQ market as well, foreigners are net sellers of more than 300 billion won, while individuals are countering with net buying of more than 300 billion won.
Among top market-cap stocks on the main board, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are down in the 4% and 5% range, respectively, from the previous trading day, trimming some of their early losses.
Overnight, U.S. stocks extended selling, led by semiconductor names, as worries spread about a slowdown in AI infrastructure investment.
Bloomberg reported that Meta is pursuing a cloud business to sell surplus computing resources from its in-house AI data centers to external corporations.
As Meta is a key corporation making large-scale investments in building AI data centers, the push for this business is seen to have heightened market jitters that investment in AI infrastructure could be paced more slowly.
News that Michael Burry, the investor who predicted the past U.S. subprime mortgage-driven financial crisis and the real-life model for the film "The Big Short," has taken short positions in semiconductor stocks also appears to have weighed on chip shares in the U.S. and Korea.
According to CNBC and other foreign media on June 30 (local time), Michael Burry, citing large-scale investment plans by Korean memory players such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, said, "The direct cause of today's stock gains is the large-scale expenditure announced in Korea," while adding, "I see this as the 'beginning of the end,' and it's only a matter of time before the bubble deflates."