The won-dollar exchange rate, Kospi and Kosdaq indexes are displayed on a screen at Hana Bank's dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Monday. [Yonhap]
The won-dollar exchange rate, Kospi and Kosdaq indexes are displayed on a screen at Hana Bank's dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Monday. [Yonhap]

The Kospi dropped more than 1% in early trading Monday as it resumed after the Hangul Day holiday, sliding to the 6,540 range. Foreign selling continued despite gains on Wall Street at the end of last week, dragging down major semiconductor stocks including Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.

According to Korea Exchange, the index was trading at 6,545.10 as of 9:14 a.m. Monday, down 80.83 points, or 1.22 percent, from the previous session. The index opened down 47.76 points, or 0.72 percent, at 6,578.17 before extending its losses.

Foreign investors posted net selling of 211.9 billion won ($158 million) on the main board. Institutional and retail investors recorded net purchases of 103.4 billion won and 81.1 billion won, respectively.

Samsung Electronics fell 2,000 won, or 0.76 percent, to 260,000 won, while SK hynix dropped 44,000 won, or 2.62 percent, to 1.64 million won.

Among large-cap stocks, SK Square fell 5.05 percent and Samsung Biologics declined 1.15 percent. Samsung Electro-Mechanics rose 0.10 percent, LG Energy Solution gained 1.37 percent, Hyundai Motor advanced 1.69 percent and KB Financial Group added 0.61 percent.

The domestic market had also fallen more than 2 percent on Thursday, when combined foreign and institutional selling pushed the Kospi down 177.97 points, or 2.62 percent, to close at 6,625.93. Samsung Electronics had announced preliminary third-quarter operating profit of 107.4 trillion won, but concerns over rising global oil prices and US Treasury yields weighed on investor sentiment.

All three major US indexes rose Friday (local time), the last trading day of last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.83 percent, the S&P 500 rose 0.59 percent and NASDAQ advanced 0.64 percent. Memory chip-related stocks fell, however, with Micron down 0.66 percent and SanDisk off 1.72 percent, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index also declined 0.41 percent.

Tensions in the Middle East and movements in US Treasury yields were also cited as headwinds for the market. Oil prices rose amid growing concerns over supply disruptions following a Houthi missile strike on Saudi Arabia. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery settled up 0.39 percent at $91.85 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Friday (local time). Brent crude for December delivery closed up 0.42 percent at $104.72 per barrel.

At the same time, the Kosdaq was trading at 884.24, down 8.03 points, or 0.90 percent, from the previous session. The index had opened down 6.74 points, or 0.76 percent, at 885.53.

On the Kosdaq, retail investors posted net purchases of 47.8 billion won. Foreign and institutional investors recorded net selling of 43 billion won and 4.6 billion won, respectively.

Among Kosdaq large-cap stocks, Alteogen fell 2.70 percent, Ecopro declined 0.98 percent, Ecopro BM dropped 2.72 percent, Jusung Engineering fell 2.43 percent, Rainbow Robotics slid 5.36 percent, Simtec fell 1.68 percent, Wonik IPS declined 0.75 percent, EO Technics fell 0.38 percent and Leeno Industrial dropped 7.05 percent. HLB was the lone gainer, rising 0.66 percent.

Han Ji-young, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities, said the Kospi is expected to recover some of last week's losses this week as the market takes cues from US inflation data — including September consumer and producer price indexes — the direction of US market interest rates, and earnings from overseas semiconductor companies.


hajun825@heraldcorp.com