The Kospi and other market indexes are displayed on a screen at Hana Bank's dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Monday. The Kospi opened up 115.65 points, or 1.73 percent, at 6,806.27, while the Kosdaq rose 12.32 points, or 1.65 percent, to open at 760.54. [Yonhap]
The Kospi and other market indexes are displayed on a screen at Hana Bank's dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Monday. The Kospi opened up 115.65 points, or 1.73 percent, at 6,806.27, while the Kosdaq rose 12.32 points, or 1.65 percent, to open at 760.54. [Yonhap]

The Kospi recovered the 6,800 level at the open Monday but has since pared some of its gains as foreign and institutional investors sold jointly. A wait-and-see mood has taken hold ahead of a series of major events this week, including earnings releases from domestic chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the US Federal Open Market Committee meeting and results from American big-tech companies.

According to Korea Exchange, the Kospi was trading at 6,734.86 as of 9:39 a.m. Monday, up 44.24 points, or 0.66 percent, from the previous session. The index had opened 115.65 points, or 1.73 percent, higher at 6,806.27 before giving back some of its early advance during trading.

On the main Kospi market, retail investors posted net purchases of 868.9 billion won ($591 million), while foreign and institutional investors were net sellers of 771.6 billion won and 119.7 billion won, respectively.

Among large-cap stocks, Samsung Electronics rose 3,000 won, or 1.20 percent, to 252,000 won, and SK Hynix gained 6,000 won, or 0.34 percent, to 1.765 million won. Hyundai Motor was up 1.37 percent, LG Energy Solution 1.52 percent and Samsung Biologics 2.70 percent. On the downside, SK Square fell 3.07 percent, Samsung Life dropped 2.36 percent, Samsung Electro-Mechanics edged down 0.15 percent and KB Financial Group slipped 0.23 percent.

The Kosdaq was up 23.55 points, or 3.15 percent, at 771.77 at the same time, after opening 12.32 points, or 1.65 percent, higher at 760.54.

On the Kosdaq market, foreign and institutional investors were net buyers of 27.6 billion won and 58.3 billion won, respectively, while retail investors were net sellers of 84.8 billion won.

Among Kosdaq large-cap stocks, Alteogen surged 5.99 percent, Rainbow Robotics 5.97 percent, Jusung Engineering 5.32 percent, Ecopro 3.46 percent, ABL Bio 3.31 percent, Ecopro BM 2.31 percent, Leeno Industrial 1.46 percent and Wonik IPS 1.00 percent. HLB fell 1.12 percent.

Han Ji-young, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, said the domestic stock market continues to see volatility beyond normal ranges, but that the premise of having entered a medium-term floor zone from a valuation and technical standpoint remains intact. "The key question is how much rebound energy the market can build up as it works through major events this week — Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix earnings, US big-tech results and the July FOMC," Han said.

Han added that increased volatility is unavoidable toward the middle of the week as the market digests multiple domestic and overseas events simultaneously, but that upside potential has already outweighed downside risk in terms of price and valuation. "There is a need to maintain existing positions centered on leading stocks, or to respond with phased buying on any pullbacks," he said.


hajun825@heraldcorp.com