Kospi closes at 8,160 as foreigners net-sell 3.5 trillion won; Samsung Electronics falls 6.40%, SK Hynix drops 9.92%; Kosdaq also tumbles 4.5%, briefly breaking below 1,000 during trading

The Kospi and other market indicators are displayed on a board at Hana Bank's dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Friday. The Kospi closed down 478.82 points, or 5.54 percent, at 8,160.59, while the Kosdaq fell 47.29 points, or 4.50 percent, to finish at 1,002.44. [Yonhap]
The Kospi and other market indicators are displayed on a board at Hana Bank's dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Friday. The Kospi closed down 478.82 points, or 5.54 percent, at 8,160.59, while the Kosdaq fell 47.29 points, or 4.50 percent, to finish at 1,002.44. [Yonhap]

The Kospi plunged more than 5 percent on Friday, sliding to the 8,100 range as foreigners extended their net selling streak to 20 consecutive sessions, with selling concentrated in semiconductor stocks.

The benchmark index closed at 8,160.59, down 478.82 points, or 5.54 percent, from the previous session. It opened at 8,323.20, already down 316.21 points, or 3.66 percent, and deepened its losses during trading to touch an intraday low of 8,038.10.

The steep early decline triggered a sidecar — a temporary halt on program sell orders — at the start of the session, the 21st such activation this year.

On the main board, foreigners net-sold 3.5214 trillion won (approximately $2.3 billion) and institutions net-sold 942.3 billion won, together driving the index lower. Foreigners have now posted net selling for 20 consecutive sessions dating back to May 7. Retail investors stood alone on the other side, posting net purchases of 4.2232 trillion won.

The sharp decline was widely attributed to growing skepticism about AI infrastructure investment following Broadcom's recent earnings release.

Overnight on Wall Street, Broadcom tumbled 12.59 percent, with Micron Technology (-7.74 percent), SanDisk (-3.92 percent) and Western Digital (-3.13 percent) also falling.

Domestic large-cap semiconductor stocks took a direct hit. Samsung Electronics closed down 6.40 percent at 329,000 won, while SK Hynix fell 9.92 percent to finish at 2,070,000 won.

"The fallout from the US market's sharp drop, combined with a rapid rotation from growth to value stocks, quickly dampened investor sentiment," said Seo Sang-young, a researcher at Mirae Asset Securities. "On top of that, heightened volatility in individual stocks — centered on single-stock leveraged products — further widened the index's losses."

Among other large-cap stocks, SK Square fell 7.57 percent, LG Energy Solution dropped 1.90 percent and Samsung C&T declined 13.92 percent.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics and HD Hyundai Heavy bucked the trend, rising 2.39 percent and 2.00 percent, respectively.

The Kosdaq also closed lower, falling 47.29 points, or 4.50 percent, to 1,002.44. On the Kosdaq, retail investors and institutions net-bought 34.1 billion won and 144.6 billion won, respectively, while foreigners net-sold 182.0 billion won.

Most large-cap Kosdaq stocks ended in the red. Jusung Engineering fell 16.17 percent, EcoPro BM dropped 8.76 percent, EcoPro declined 8.00 percent and Kolon TissueGene lost 9.41 percent.

Wonik IPS was an exception, rising 4.32 percent.

In the Seoul foreign exchange market, the won weakened 9.4 won against the dollar to 1,539.1 won.


moon@heraldcorp.com