Kospi opens at 7,045

Institutions net buy 89.2 billion won

Kosdaq also edges higher

An employee at Hana Bank's headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul, monitors stock market and exchange rate movements Tuesday. [Yonhap]
An employee at Hana Bank's headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul, monitors stock market and exchange rate movements Tuesday. [Yonhap]

The Kospi reclaimed the 7,000 mark during intraday trading Tuesday, for the first time in 15 sessions since Aug. 18.

As of 9:14 a.m., the benchmark index stood at 7,053.62, up 57.67 points, or 0.82 percent, from the previous session.

The index opened at 7,045.79, gaining 50.40 points, or 0.72 percent.

On the Kospi market, institutions led the advance with net purchases of 89.2 billion won ($65.8 million), while other corporations added 80.6 billion won in net buying. Foreigners and retail investors were net sellers, offloading 142.5 billion won and 16.1 billion won, respectively.

Foreigners, who are net sellers in the spot market, have been buying in the futures market, posting net purchases of 319.3 billion won in KOSPI 200 futures.

On Monday, the Kospi closed up 308.18 points, or 4.61 percent, at 6,995.39. The rally was driven by growing expectations that memory chip prices will continue to rise, fueled by anticipated demand for high-capacity products following OpenAI's launch of its new AI model "Astra."

Foreigners and institutions together bought more than 5 trillion won on the Kospi market Monday, lifting the index. Foreigners net bought 2.59 trillion won while institutions net bought 2.65 trillion won.

Continued foreign buying is providing additional support to the index.

"Foreign investors have net bought both Kospi spot shares and KOSPI 200 futures for three consecutive sessions," said Lee Jun-young, a researcher at Eugene Investment & Securities. "Three straight sessions of combined spot-and-futures net buying is the first time since June 16, and the buying intensity has been growing day by day."

Han Ji-young, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, said the key question is whether foreign net buying will remain consistent even during a price pullback. "At the same time, it will be worth watching whether sector rotation emerges — shifting from semiconductors during short-term consolidation into other AI infrastructure plays such as IT hardware and power equipment, or into consumer goods and shareholder return-focused sectors," Han said.

US markets were closed overnight for Labor Day.

The two semiconductor heavyweights were again in positive territory Tuesday. Samsung Electronics rose 1.11 percent to 273,000 won, while SK hynix jumped 3.59 percent to 1,847,000 won.

Among large-cap stocks, SK Square gained 2.93 percent and Samsung C&T rose 0.91 percent.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics fell 2.27 percent, LG Energy Solution dropped 1.93 percent, Hyundai Motor slipped 0.89 percent and Samsung Biologics declined 0.68 percent.

The Kosdaq index was up 2.31 points, or 0.28 percent, at 824.52 at the same time, after opening at 825.03 — a gain of 2.84 points, or 0.35 percent — and trading in a narrow range since.

On the Kosdaq market, retail investors net bought 20.1 billion won and foreigners net bought 21.8 billion won, while institutions were net sellers at 40.8 billion won.

Among top Kosdaq stocks by market capitalization, semiconductor materials, parts and equipment names were advancing, with Jusung Engineering up 8.14 percent, Wonik IPS up 2.38 percent and Innotech up 2.52 percent.


moon@heraldcorp.com