KOSPI and KOSDAQ Open Lower Amid U.S. Stock Market Shock

As U.S. Treasury yields surged and the New York stock market retreated across the board, the KOSPI also opened lower.

As of 9:20 a.m. on May 22, the KOSPI index was trading at 2,609.86, down 15.72 points (-0.60%) from the previous trading day.

While foreign investors and institutions recorded net sales of 80.4 billion won and 143.1 billion won respectively, individual investors made net purchases of 250.9 billion won, helping to defend the index against further declines.

Most of the top market capitalization stocks are falling. Samsung Electronics is down 0.72% from the previous day, and SK Hynix is also down by 0.25%. Hanwha Aerospace (-1.08%), KB Financial Group (-1.02%), and Hyundai Motor (-0.96%) are also declining.

On the other hand, Samsung C&T, the largest shareholder of Samsung Biologics, is soaring by 7.91% compared to the previous day as Samsung Biologics pursues a corporate spin-off. Expectations are rising that the spin-off could be linked to a restructuring of the Samsung Group's governance structure.

On the 20th, employees are monitoring the stock market and exchange rates in the dealing room at the Hana Bank headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul. As of 9:02 a.m. that day, the KOSPI index started at 2,619.53, up 16.11 points (0.62%) from the previous close, continuing its upward trend. 2025.5.20 Photo by Cho Yongjun

At 7:46 a.m. that day, Samsung Biologics announced that it would establish Samsung Epi Holdings through a simple physical spin-off. Samsung Biologics will focus exclusively on its contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) business for biopharmaceuticals, while the newly established pure holding company, Samsung Epi Holdings, will later incorporate Samsung Bioepis, a biosimilar company, as a wholly owned subsidiary.

Overnight on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged by 816.80 points (1.91%) to close at 41,860.44. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 index fell by 95.85 points (1.61%) to 5,844.61, and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped by 270.07 points (1.41%) to 18,872.64.

The New York stock market, which had been calm after the opening, began to plummet following the results of the U.S. 20-year Treasury auction held at 1 p.m. This was the first Treasury auction since international credit rating agency Moody's downgraded the U.S. credit rating, making it a closely watched event on Wall Street to see if the downgrade would have an impact.

In the 20-year Treasury auction conducted by the U.S. Treasury Department for $16 billion, the yield was set at 5.047%. This is a sharp increase of 23.7 basis points (1bp = 0.01 percentage point) compared to last month's auction yield of 4.810%, marking the highest level since October 2023. The yield was also 1.2 basis points higher than the pre-auction trading level.

The KOSDAQ index is trading at 718.08, down 5.54 points (0.77%). The index opened at 720.96, down 2.66 points (0.37%) from the previous day.

Foreign investors and institutions are net sellers by 20.7 billion won and 400 million won, respectively, while only individual investors are net buyers by 22 billion won.

Most of the top market capitalization stocks on the KOSDAQ are in the red. Only HLB is showing a gain of less than 1%, while leading stock Alteogen (-0.31%), as well as Ecopro BM (-1.48%) and Rainbow Robotics (-2.68%), are weak. Kolon TissueGene and Seegene are both showing strong gains of over 4%.

In the Seoul foreign exchange market, the won-dollar exchange rate opened at 1,377 won, down 10.2 won.