Index touched 8,933 intraday, putting 9,000 within reach, before reversing
Foreign net selling offsets retail and institutional buying, leaving market mixed
Won-dollar rate climbs back above 1,510, keeping investors on edge
The Kospi broke above 8,900 for the first time Tuesday before pulling back under pressure from foreign selling. Expectations for a push through 9,000 remain alive, but profit-taking by foreign investors following a steep short-term rally has emerged as a key variable.
According to Korea Exchange, the Kospi opened at 8,883.19, up 94.81 points, or 1.08 percent, from the previous session, immediately surpassing the intraday all-time high of 8,874.16 set the day before. The index then extended its gains to 8,933.62, clearing 8,900 for the first time and leaving just roughly 66 points between it and the 9,000 mark at its intraday high.
The rally quickly lost steam as the index trimmed its gains, dipped into negative territory, then bounced back, leaving it in choppy trade around the 8,800 level. As of 10:25 a.m., the Kospi was down 1.26 percent at 8,677.89.
Foreign investors are driving the decline, with net selling of 1.4629 trillion won (about $968 million) in the Kospi market. Retail and institutional investors are providing some support, with net purchases of 1.0920 trillion won and 413.8 billion won, respectively.
The index had opened higher on the back of an overnight rally on Wall Street, but profit-taking led primarily by foreign investors has prevented it from building on those gains.
Wall Street's three major indexes all closed at all-time highs overnight, shrugging off a surge in crude oil prices to post broad-based gains led by technology stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.09 percent, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.26 percent and 0.42 percent, respectively.
Nvidia surged 6.26 percent, leading the technology sector higher, after CEO Jensen Huang unveiled the N1X — the company's first AI PC chip developed in collaboration with Microsoft — at the GTC Taipei event in Taiwan and announced plans to enter the AI laptop market.
U.S. President Donald Trump also lifted investor sentiment by brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah and saying that talks aimed at ending the conflict with Iran were moving "at a rapid pace."
Back home, the domestic market remains under downward pressure as foreign selling continues. Analysts attribute the pullback to profit-taking after a substantial short-term run-up — the Kospi surged 28.5 percent in May alone.
Among large-cap stocks, Samsung Electronics rose 3.87 percent and briefly touched 370,000 won intraday for the first time, while SK Hynix fell 1.35 percent.
SK Square, SK Hynix's largest shareholder, also declined 1.71 percent. Hyundai Motor fell 3.47 percent, Kia dropped 1.59 percent, Samsung Electro-Mechanics tumbled 9.13 percent and HD Hyundai Heavy slid 3.73 percent.
LG Electronics, which had surged on expectations of a high-profile meeting with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during his visit to South Korea this week, hit a 52-week high before reversing to fall 5.78 percent. NAVER was also down 7.18 percent.
Samsung Group affiliates were among the gainers, with Samsung Life up 4.02 percent and Samsung C&T rising 1.43 percent. LG Energy Solution surged 7.36 percent.
The Kosdaq also extended its losses. The index opened down 5.14 points, or 0.49 percent, at 1,044.89 and continued to widen its decline. Retail investors were net sellers of 178.7 billion won on the Kosdaq, while foreign and institutional investors were net buyers of 114.8 billion won and 66.3 billion won, respectively.
Alteogen fell 1.09 percent, Rainbow Robotics dropped 4.31 percent, Kolon TissueGene declined 2.56 percent, Lino Industrial slipped 2.26 percent and Samchundang Pharm tumbled 5.97 percent. On the upside, battery makers EcoPro BM and EcoPro gained 0.97 percent and 2.30 percent, respectively, while Jusung Engineering rose 1.51 percent, LegaChem Biosciences added 0.82 percent and Simtech climbed 2.59 percent.
The won weakened further against the dollar, pressured by lingering geopolitical uncertainty and foreign selling. The rate opened at 1,512.0 won per dollar in the Seoul foreign exchange market Tuesday, up 7.7 won from the previous session.
th5@heraldcorp.com
