"More Frightening Than Big Cut, Foreigners"…KOSPI Barely Closes Slightly Higher

Major Semiconductor Stocks Plunge
SK Hynix Down 6.14%
Automotive, Healthcare, Value-Up Rise

On the 19th, along with a sharp decline in major semiconductor stocks, the sluggish KOSPI index managed to close slightly higher, supported by gains in ▲automobiles ▲healthcare ▲value-up related stocks.

On that day, the KOSPI closed at 2,580.80, up 5.39 points (0.21%) from the previous trading day. The KOSPI index started the session at 2,594.67, up 19.26 points (0.75%), mostly declined during the day, but ended with a slight gain. Foreign investors sold stocks worth 1.1765 trillion KRW, while institutions and individuals net bought 877.7 billion KRW and 267 billion KRW, respectively.

Joon-Ki Cho, a researcher at SK Securities, said, "Foreign investors were scarier than the Federal Reserve's big rate cut. Compared to the Nikkei 225 in Japan and the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong, which both showed gains of over 2%, the KOSPI did not strongly join the favorable global sentiment, which is disappointing." He added, "Foreigners mainly sold spot stocks in the KOSPI, with most of the spot selling concentrated in the electrical and electronics sector."

Despite the Federal Reserve's 'big cut' of lowering the benchmark interest rate by 0.5% for the first time in 4 years and 6 months, concerns about an economic recession remain, leading the New York stock market to close down across the board. On the 19th, after the Chuseok holiday, the KOSPI opened at 2,594 points, up 17 points, then fluctuated slightly up and down. Employees are working in the dealing room at the Seoul Hana Bank headquarters. Photo by Younghan Heo younghan@

Among the top market capitalization stocks, Samsung Biologics (5.96%), LG Electronics (4.89%), Hyundai Motor (3.80%), Celltrion (3.23%), Kia (2.99%), Samsung Life Insurance (2.97%), Meritz Financial Group (2.15%), and Samsung SDI (1.92%) closed higher. On the other hand, SK Hynix (-6.14%), Samsung Electronics (-2.02%), LG Energy Solution (-2.00%), and LG Chem (-0.62%) declined. In particular, SK Hynix, which was downgraded to a target price of 120,000 KRW by U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley due to the possibility of price declines in general DRAM and high bandwidth memory (HBM), experienced an intraday drop of around 10%.

By sector, pharmaceuticals (3.80%), transportation equipment (2.02%), steel and metals (1.83%), food and beverages (1.38%), transportation and warehousing (1.13%), insurance (0.99%), and finance (0.93%) closed higher. Conversely, electrical and electronics (-1.50%), construction (-0.84%), telecommunications (-0.77%), medical precision (-0.73%), and textiles and apparel (-0.33%) sectors declined. Ji-Won Kim and Jeong-Eun Lim, researchers at KB Securities, said, "The KOSPI was relatively weak due to sluggish semiconductor stocks, but the losses narrowed as automobile, healthcare, and value-up related stocks rose."

The KOSDAQ index recorded 739.51, up 6.31 points (0.86%) from the previous session. The index started at 738.41, up 5.21 points (0.71%), briefly turned slightly down, but ultimately succeeded in closing higher. Foreign investors and institutions bought stocks worth 173.1 billion KRW and 21.6 billion KRW, respectively. Individuals were the sole net sellers with 185.5 billion KRW.

Among the top market capitalization stocks, Alteogen (9.55%), Rigachem Bio (8.63%), ST Pharm (7.56%), Hugel (3.93%), Pharma Research (2.87%), Silicon투 (2.83%), Pearl Abyss (2.73%), Classys (2.03%), and HPSP (2.03%) rose. HLB (-2.91%), Enchem (-1.80%), JYP Ent. (-1.11%), and EcoPro BM (-0.63%) closed lower.