Aftermath of Trump's Tariff Imposition Remarks... KOSPI Retreats to 2520 Level

Institutions and Foreigners Net Sell Totaling 272.7 Billion
Mixed Fortunes Among Top 10 Market Cap Stocks... Telecom Sector Shows Strength
Alteogen, Which Rebounded After 7 Days, Drops 10% Again

The KOSPI closed lower. Following President Trump's remarks on imposing tariffs, a joint selling offensive by institutions and foreigners continued.

Yonhap News

On the 26th, the KOSPI closed at 2520.36, down 13.98 points (0.55%) from the previous session. Before the market opened, news of then President-elect Donald Trump's tariff imposition remarks emerged, and the KOSPI opened at 2521.39, down 12.95 points (0.51%) from the previous trading day. Early in the session, it reached a high of 2526.62 but then dropped to 2512.21. Trump announced additional tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China. Although buying momentum somewhat recovered in the afternoon, the index closed below the previous day's closing price of 2534.34.

By investor type, individual investors alone purchased stocks worth 187.2 billion KRW. In contrast, institutions sold 238.5 billion KRW and foreigners sold 34.2 billion KRW, totaling 272.7 billion KRW in net sales.

The top 10 stocks by market capitalization showed mixed trends. Samsung Electronics (0.69%), SK Hynix (0.06%), Hyundai Motor (2.05%), Kia (0.10%), and NAVER (1.24%) saw slight gains. Meanwhile, LG Energy Solution (-3.22%), Samsung Biologics (-3.03%), and Shinhan Financial Group (-3.72%) recorded declines exceeding 3%.

By sector, telecommunications (2.23%) was the strongest. KT and LG Uplus, representative stocks in telecommunications, both hit 52-week highs. Following were electric and gas utilities (1.87%), non-metallic minerals (1.52%), steel and metals (1.43%), medical precision instruments (1.22%), and food and beverages (1.03%), which also performed well. Conversely, machinery (-2.34%), insurance (-2.01%), pharmaceuticals (-2.01%), transportation equipment (-1.83%), finance (-1.24%), securities (-0.66%), and manufacturing (-0.65%) sectors experienced larger declines than the index.

The KOSDAQ index closed at 693.15, down 3.68 points (0.53%) from the previous day.

By investor type, individuals and institutions were net buyers of 195.1 billion KRW and 16.5 billion KRW respectively, while foreigners were net sellers of 208.2 billion KRW.

912 stocks rose, 654 stocks fell, and 129 stocks closed unchanged. Except for Ecopro (0.63%), Classys (0.63%), and Rainbow Robotics (0.72%), the top 10 market cap stocks mostly declined. Notably, KOSDAQ's leading stock Alteogen recorded a double-digit drop (-10.27%). Alteogen, which has been volatile due to rumors of a 'patent dispute,' gave back almost all of the gains from the previous day’s rebound after seven trading days. Other large bio stocks such as HLB (-2.96%) and Rigachem Bio (-4.94%) also showed weakness.

Research analysts Jae-woon Cho and Kyung-min Lee from Daishin Securities stated, "Since November, semiconductors have contributed significantly to the decline but have had a low contribution to the rebound, acting as the main cause of the delayed KOSPI recovery. The sector with the poorest recovery is chemicals, followed by non-ferrous metals and wood, where Korea Zinc’s decline is leading the delayed recovery."