Kospi opens down 1.14%

Foreigners net buy 131.8 billion won on Kospi

Samsung Electronics, SK hynix down over 1%

A display board at Hana Bank's dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, shows the Kospi and other market indicators in early trading Thursday. The index opened down 65.55 points, or 1.14 percent, at 5,670.11. [Yonhap]
A display board at Hana Bank's dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, shows the Kospi and other market indicators in early trading Thursday. The index opened down 65.55 points, or 1.14 percent, at 5,670.11. [Yonhap]

The Kospi fell more than 1 percent at the open Thursday, failing to track overnight gains in major US semiconductor stocks. Analysts say concerns over AI infrastructure investment have yet to fully dissipate.

As of 10 a.m., the Kospi was down 57.89 points, or 1.01 percent, at 5,677.77, according to Korea Exchange.

The index opened at 5,670.11, down 65.55 points, or 1.14 percent, from the previous session.

On the main board, foreign investors were net buyers of 131.8 billion won ($99.4 million), providing some support to the index. Individual and institutional investors were net sellers of 121.4 billion won and 15.4 billion won, respectively.

However, foreigners were net sellers of 218.2 billion won in the KOSPI 200 futures market.

All three major Wall Street indexes closed higher overnight. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 1.05 percent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 gained 0.69 percent and 0.58 percent, respectively.

Meta reported third-quarter sales of $64.6 billion, up 26 percent from a year earlier, topping the market consensus of $63.37 billion.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's unveiling of the company's AI infrastructure and data center strategy for Europe at the annual developer conference GTC 2026 in Berlin also lifted investor sentiment.

Super Micro Computer and SpaceX, which both reported strong earnings after Wednesday's close, surged 9.55 percent and 7.79 percent, respectively. Micron rose 1.96 percent, and SK hynix's American depositary receipts gained 2.48 percent.

Still, analysts caution that market concerns over AI infrastructure spending have not been fully resolved.

"Worries about AI have eased somewhat following SpaceX's earnings release, but an uneasy feeling remains," said Heo Jae-hwan, a researcher at Eugene Investment & Securities. "Meta did not disclose its capital expenditure plans for next year." He added that it was unclear whether the company was finding it difficult to present aggressive capex figures given tight financing conditions, or whether it was looking to scale back investment.

Samsung Electronics was trading down 1.12 percent at 221,000 won, while SK hynix fell 1.24 percent to 1,278,000 won. LG Energy Solution (-4.13 percent), Samsung Biologics (-1.62 percent) and Hyundai Motor (-1.94 percent) were also in the red.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics was up 3.42 percent, a move attributed to Nvidia's official announcement of a strategic partnership with the company at GTC 2026 on Wednesday.

At the same time, the Kosdaq was down 7.25 points, or 0.91 percent, at 785.51.

The index opened at 789.84, down 2.92 points, or 0.37 percent, before extending its losses.

On the Kosdaq, foreign and institutional investors were net sellers of 129.7 billion won and 47.6 billion won, respectively, while individual investors were net buyers of 185.9 billion won.

Among top Kosdaq-listed stocks by market capitalization, Rainbow Robotics rose 1.74 percent and Simtech gained 2.38 percent. Alteogen fell 3.33 percent, Ecopro dropped 3.59 percent and Ecopro BM slid 6.62 percent.


moon@heraldcorp.com