Retail Investors Buy $757 Million as Kospi Nears 9,000 Despite Hawkish Fed

Kosdaq falls more than 1% in early trading

Won opens more than 10 per dollar weaker

South Korea’s Kospi rose to a fresh intraday record early on June 18, nearing the 9,000 mark despite a hawkish outcome from the Federal Open Market Committee.

As of 9:10 a.m., the benchmark Kospi was up 67.06 points, or 0.76%, at 8,931.30. It earlier climbed as high as 8,975.52, setting a new intraday high.

The Federal Reserve kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.50% to 3.75% at the first FOMC meeting under new Chair Kevin Warsh. Still, policymakers indicated through their dot plot that rates could rise later this year.

In the dot plot, nine of 18 officials projected that the policy rate at the end of this year would be above the current 3.50% to 3.75% range. The median year-end projection rose to 3.8% from 3.4% in March.

Retail investors were driving the market higher in early trading. Individuals were net buyers of 1.0466 trillion won on the Kospi, while foreigners and institutions were net sellers of 812.1 billion won and 205.3 billion won, respectively.

The market’s two semiconductor heavyweights, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, both advanced. Samsung Electronics rose 2,500 won, or 0.72%, to 349,000 won, while SK Hynix jumped 90,000 won, or 3.57%, to 2.611 million won. SK Hynix said it had supplied 12-layer samples of its next-generation high-bandwidth memory product, HBM4E, to major customers.

SK Square rose 3.82%, Samsung Life Insurance gained 2.80%, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries added 1.72%, and Doosan Enerbility climbed 1.45%. Samsung C&T fell 2.45%, LG Energy Solution lost 2.04%, Hyundai Motor slipped 1.46%, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics declined 0.74%.

The Kosdaq was lower. As of that time, the tech-heavy index was down 14.15 points, or 1.37%, at 1,017.81. In the Kosdaq market, foreigners and institutions were net sellers of 120.8 billion won and 17.4 billion won, while individuals were net buyers of 137.9 billion won.

The won opened weaker against the dollar after the FOMC decision. In Seoul trading, the currency opened at 1,525.0 won per dollar, up 11.6 won from the previous session.

Lee Su, Hankyung.com reporter, 2su@hankyung.com