Semiconductor Sector Drags Down Market
Foreign Investors Lead Sell-Off
Most Industries Decline, Insurance and Food Sectors Gain
U.S. Revokes VEU Status for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in China
KOSDAQ Index Also Closes Lower
The Korean stock market closed lower on September 1, dragged down by weakness in the semiconductor sector and selling by foreign investors.
On this day, the KOSPI index finished at 3,142.93, down 43.08 points (1.35%) from the previous day. The index opened at 3,164.58, a decrease of 21.43 points (0.67%), and extended its losses in the afternoon to close weakly around the 3,140 level. Foreign investors sold 267.4 billion won worth of shares, and institutions offloaded 193.9 billion won. Individual investors purchased 346.9 billion won.
On the afternoon of the 1st, the status board in the dealing room of Hana Bank headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul, displayed the KOSPI index, the won-dollar exchange rate, and the KOSDAQ index. On that day, the KOSPI index closed at 3142.93, down 43.08 points (1.35%) from the previous trading day, and the KOSDAQ index closed at 785.00, down 11.91 points (1.49%) from the previous session. Yonhap News
Among large-cap stocks, Hanwha Ocean (up 3.93%), Hanwha Aerospace (up 3.62%), HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (up 2.09%), Celltrion (up 1.31%), and Hyundai Mobis (up 0.94%) rose. In contrast, SK Hynix (down 4.83%), Doosan Enerbility (down 3.40%), Samsung Electronics (down 3.01%), Samsung Electronics Preferred (down 2.12%), Kakao (down 2.08%), Shinhan Financial Group (down 1.99%), HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (down 1.92%), and KB Financial Group (down 1.02%) declined.
By sector, most industries showed declines, including medical precision instruments (down 3.38%), machinery and equipment (down 3.08%), electrical and electronics (down 3.08%), manufacturing (down 1.86%), chemicals (down 1.83%), textiles and apparel (down 1.69%), securities (down 1.56%), non-metallic minerals (down 1.47%), and general services (down 1.44%). However, insurance (up 1.40%), food, beverage & tobacco (up 0.78%), and real estate (up 0.41%) sectors closed higher.
In particular, the semiconductor sector was hit by several negative factors: the United States revoked the "Validated End-User (VEU)" status for the Chinese subsidiaries of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix; and U.S. AI semiconductor stocks weakened due to Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce company, developing its own next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips.
The KOSDAQ index closed at 785.00, down 11.91 points (1.49%) from the previous day. The index opened at 795.30, a decrease of 1.61 points (0.20%), and extended its losses in the afternoon to close weakly around the 780 level. Foreign investors recorded a net sale of 157.1 billion won. Individual investors made a net purchase of 68.7 billion won, and institutions recorded a net purchase of 4 billion won.
Among major KOSDAQ stocks, Hugel (up 4.75%), Alteogen (up 3.76%), HLB (up 2.52%), JYP Entertainment (up 1.51%), and SM Entertainment (up 1.15%) rose. Meanwhile, Caregen (down 5.94%), Legochem Biosciences (down 4.82%), EO Technics (down 4.79%), Samchundang Pharm (down 4.26%), PharmaResearch (down 3.09%), Peptron (down 3.07%), Rainbow Robotics (down 2.01%), Silicon Two (down 1.67%), Lino Corporation (down 1.60%), Ecopro (down 1.38%), ABL Bio (down 1.20%), and Ecopro BM (down 1.07%) all closed lower.
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