On the 8th, the KOSPI closed the session down by over 1%. The exchange rate also surged by 22 won in a single day. This sharp deterioration in investor sentiment is attributed to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell mentioning the possibility of a 0.5 percentage point interest rate hike at this month's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.
On that day, the KOSPI closed at 2,431.91, down 31.44 points (1.28%) from the previous session. It showed a weak trend, falling more than 1% from the start of trading and at one point during the session dropping to 2,426.52, breaking below the 2,430 level.
Looking at trading trends by investor type in the securities market, individual investors were the sole net buyers with purchases worth 942.1 billion won, while foreigners and institutions sold 161.8 billion won and 819 billion won respectively.
Most sectors, except for a few, could not avoid a downward trend. The chemical sector fell the most, down 2.59%. This was followed by steel and metals (-2.46%), services (-2.37%), and pharmaceuticals (-1.78%).
Among the top 10 groups by market capitalization on the KOSPI, all stocks except Kia (1.68%) declined. Samsung Electronics closed at 60,300 won, down 400 won (-0.66%) from the previous session. Battery-related stocks such as Samsung SDI (-4.92%) and LG Chem (-3.38%), as well as growth stocks like NAVER (-4.03%), experienced significant declines.
On the same day, the KOSDAQ index also closed lower at 813.95, down 1.81 points (0.22%) from the previous session. Individual investors were net buyers with 244.8 billion won, while foreigners and institutions were net sellers with 51.7 billion won and 177.1 billion won respectively.
The top 1 to 5 stocks by market capitalization on the KOSDAQ all showed gains that day. In particular, EcoPro surged 14.38% in a single day, closing at 334,000 won.
SM, which is in the midst of a management dispute, also closed up 5.88% at 158,500 won. This surpassed the tender offer price of 150,000 won proposed by Kakao the previous day, increasing the likelihood of the tender offer failing. SM's stock price even reached an intraday high of 161,200 won, setting a new all-time high.
Meanwhile, in the Seoul foreign exchange market, the won/dollar exchange rate closed at 1,321.4 won, up 22.0 won from the previous day's closing price. This was the largest single-day increase since the 23.4 won rise on the 6th of last month.
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