Kospi Drops 1.9% Below 7,400 Early as Foreign, Institutional Selling Follows US Tech Slide
Summary
- The Kospi fell 1%% in early trading to 7,371.85, slipping below the 7,400 level.
- On the benchmark market, foreigners and institutions were net sellers, while retail investors were net buyers.
- Large-cap stocks including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix were weaker, while only a handful of names advanced.
Forecast Trend Report by Period
South Korea’s Kospi fell nearly 2% in early trading on May 19, slipping below the 7,400 mark as foreign and institutional investors sold after overnight weakness in US technology stocks.
As of 9:07 a.m., the Kospi was down 144.19 points, or 1.92%, at 7,371.85. The benchmark at one point fell as much as 1.99% earlier in the session.
On the benchmark KOSPI market, foreigners were net sellers of 1.03 trillion won and institutions sold a net 121.2 billion won. Retail investors were net buyers of 1.12 trillion won.
US stocks ended mixed overnight after swinging during the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.32%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.07% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.51%. Semiconductor shares were particularly weak, with Micron Technology down 5.95% and SanDisk falling 5.3%.
The declines came after Seagate Technology’s chief executive said at a JPMorgan conference that it takes too long to build new factories, stoking concern that the memory-chip cycle may have passed its peak as supply constraints ease.
Against that backdrop, South Korea’s two biggest chipmakers, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, were down about 3% and 2%, respectively. Among other large-cap Kospi stocks, SK Square, Hyundai Motor, LG Energy Solution, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung Biologics and Samsung C&T fell, while Hanwha Aerospace, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samsung Life Insurance rose.
The Kosdaq was up 4.33 points, or 0.39%, at 1,115.42 at the same time. On the Kosdaq market, retail investors and institutions were net buyers of 47.9 billion won and 21.5 billion won, respectively, while foreigners were net sellers of 44.7 billion won.
Among top Kosdaq stocks by market capitalization, Alteogen, Ecopro BM, Ecopro, Kolon TissueGene, Samchundang Pharm, Jusung Engineering, HLB and ABL Bio rose, while Rainbow Robotics, Leeno Industrial, LigaChem Biosciences and EO Technics fell.
In Seoul’s foreign-exchange market, the won opened at 1,493.8 per dollar, down 6.5 won from the previous session’s daytime close.
Ko Jeong-sam, Hankyung.com reporter jsk@hankyung.com
Korea Economic Daily
hankyung@bloomingbit.ioThe Korea Economic Daily Global is a digital media where latest news on Korean companies, industries, and financial markets.
