KOSPI face-plants toward -5%, KOSDAQ holds its own

With twenty minutes left in the session, my KOSPI sits at 6,266.03, down 4.99%, while KOSDAQ is off on its own path at 736.85, up 2.37%. Compared to my 1:40pm check-in, KOSPI slid another 0.31 points further and KOSDAQ's gain shrank by 0.84 points — the gap between the two just kept widening. The leverage-ETF fallout is getting blamed for KOSPI's plunge, and KOSDAQ's strength even tripped a buy-side circuit breaker that only added more churn, while foreigners and institutions stayed net buyers on both boards — so the index moves and the actual money flow went their separate ways today. Looking back at Friday's US close (7/31), the semiconductor weakness there lines up with today's KOSPI drop. My own book — Microsoft +17.6%, NVIDIA -3.3%, Freeport-McMoRan flat, Poongsan -2.7% — is just sitting tight through it, and what I'm watching into the close is whether KOSPI claws back any of this drop.