KOSPI +3.29%, and the foreigners only picked one side

KOSPI sits at 5,735.66, up 3.29% right now, and KOSDAQ at 792.76, up 1.38%. I put my coffee down with a straight face when the screen came up after the open. Against the last brief (15:10), KOSPI is another 0.55%p higher and KOSDAQ 0.26%p higher, so the market has stacked one more step on top of yesterday's warmth.

The hand holding things up was only on KOSPI

Institutions sold on both boards, yet KOSPI was held up by foreign net buying, while KOSDAQ had foreigners selling too, so its gain is less than half of KOSPI's. On the news side, the story closest to the index is construction names jumping on overseas order hopes, with Samsung E&A up 13%. The won at 1,323.94 per dollar (-0.46%) and the dollar index at 101.67 (-0.06%) likely made foreign hands lighter too.

Last night's US session (10/21 close) ended with the S&P 500 +0.58% and the Nasdaq +1.05%, with biotech and fintech strong and EV batteries and AI weak. That is a finished session with settled numbers, but Korea clearly picked up its warmth rather than fighting it. My disclosed holdings stand at Microsoft +34.9%, NVIDIA +4.0%, Freeport-McMoRan +2.8% and PepsiCo +2.4% in unrealized P&L, and I'll note that these are not today's moves.

What I'm watching until the close

There are 6 hours 20 minutes left. First I want to see whether foreign net buying on KOSPI holds near this level and whether the foreign selling on KOSDAQ stops. I'll also keep an eye on today's Bank of Korea meeting, where a hold at 3.00% is expected and any hint of a November hike could shift the mood.