KOSPI Nears 6,600 as Foreign and Institutional Buying Fuel the Rollercoaster-spi's Final Stretch

Right now the KOSPI is up 17.91% at 6,595.45 and the KOSDAQ is up 11.63% at 719.76 — this is what people are calling the "rollercoaster-spi" market, and it's still running into the late session. Overnight US stocks (as of the 7/31 close) rose on cloud-name strength — S&P 500 +0.70%, Nasdaq +1.00% — and today Korea took that move and multiplied it several times over, with foreigners buying ₩7.241 trillion of KOSPI and ₩169.7 billion of KOSDAQ while institutions piled in right alongside them. The won's holding firm too, with dollar/won down to 1,442.28 and the dollar index slipping to 100.01, and news that the won gained 8.8% for all of July adds weight to the sense that exports and jobs are giving this market some real ground to stand on. That said, when lawmakers start floating a parliamentary probe into swings like this, it tells me not everyone's comfortable with how wild the ride's gotten. My own book shows Microsoft up 17.9% and Nvidia down 2.8% on paper, and with about an hour and twenty minutes left before the close, what I'm watching is whether this surge holds or gives some of it back.