On the 18th, the KOSPI index reversed lower after an early surge at the open. Lifted by artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor tailwinds, the KOSPI started at the 7,100 level but gave up all gains and fell below 7,000 as institutions unloaded large net sales and profit-taking poured in.
As of 11:49 a.m., the KOSPI index was down 36.74 points, or 0.53%, at 6,941.20 from the previous trading day. The index, which had gained more than 2% right after the open, turned lower, tracing a downward slope from 11:30 a.m.
In the main board, foreigners are net buying about 930 billion won, single-handedly stepping in to defend the index. However, institutions and individuals are net selling about 520 billion won and about 320 billion won, respectively, pressuring the index. Among institutions, brokerages are leading the selloff with 611.7 billion won in net sales.
The previous day, New York stocks ended lower across the three major indexes on mounting geopolitical risks after the end of a temporary truce between the United States and Iran and a jump in the 10-year U.S. Government Bonds yield to 4.726%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 272.63 points, or 0.51%, to 53,459.78 from the previous trading day. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 index and the Nasdaq index also fell 0.52% and 0.32%, respectively. However, on news that second-quarter revenue at Anthropic, developer of the AI chatbot Claude, surged, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 1.6%, leading early gains in domestic chip stocks at the open.
But as the burden from U.S. Government Bonds yields reemerged, large-cap stocks at home broadly lost steam. Vasco Cúrdia, a research advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said in an Economic Letter that "based on the medium-term real natural rate of interest, the Fed's current policy is actually accommodative," adding that "the current benchmark rate (3.50%–3.75%) is 0.50–0.75 percentage points below neutral."
At the same time, losses are deepening on the KOSDAQ index. After starting at 866.59, up 1.94 points, or 0.22%, from the previous trading day, the KOSDAQ index was at 848.79 as of 11:49 a.m., down 15.86 points, or 1.83%.
On the KOSDAQ market, foreigners and institutions are dragging the index lower with net sales of about 70 billion won and about 160 billion won, respectively. Individuals alone are net buying 240 billion won.
Most top market-cap stocks have turned weaker. As of 12 p.m., Samsung Electronics(005930) was down 1.28% from the previous trading day at 271,000 won. Declines were steep in Samsung Electro-Mechanics(009150) (-4.11%), LG Energy Solution(373220) (-3.92%), HD Hyundai Heavy Industries(329180) (-3.82%), Doosan Enerbility(034020) (-3.39%), Hyundai Motor(005380) (-2.76%), and Hanwha Aerospace(012450) (-1.81%).
By contrast, SK hynix(000660) was up 2.01% at 1,678,000 won, holding firm. Some names were also strong, including Samsung Life Insurance(032830) (4.15%), SK Square(402340) (1.56%), and Samsung C&T(028260) (0.81%).