Losses Narrowed Below the 5,500 Line, Yet Foreigners Sold Even More

Right now the KOSPI sits at 5,515.51, down 0.63%, and the KOSDAQ at 739.13, down 1.67%. Compared with my 12:10 note, the KOSPI has clawed back 0.83 percentage points and the KOSDAQ 0.98. Both are still in the red, but they've climbed one step up from the floor in the past hour and a half.

Losses narrowed, but foreign hands got heavier

The flows tell a curious story. Foreigners are net sellers of 6,280억 won on the KOSPI, and that selling grew by 1,383억 since last time. The index held up because institutions absorbed it with 4,744억 in net buying. On the KOSDAQ it runs the other way: foreigners are still net sellers of 289억, but 190억 of net buying came in after the last note, so the selling eased, while institutions are net sellers of 772억. I read the KOSDAQ's afternoon bounce as mostly foreigners easing off.

The news points to lingering worries over AI profitability and big-tech earnings ahead as the pressure behind the foreign selling. Samsung Electronics is down while SK hynix is up, so the KOSPI is tightrope-walking around 5,500. Foreigners also bought nearly 20,000 contracts of treasury futures, which some read as a lean toward lower rates. I'll just note it and leave it there.

The shadow of the last US session hasn't lifted

As of the 10/23 close, the S&P 500 fell 0.52% and the Nasdaq 0.21%. Today's session looks like it inherited that weakness. Cybersecurity and cloud led and copper/minerals and gold miners lagged in that session, but that's a finished record, not something moving now. The won is at 1,325.99 per dollar (+0.03%) and the dollar index at 101.81 (+0.20%), so FX is no big wave.

My disclosed holdings read Kia -5.8%, HD Korea Shipbuilding -11.8%, Shinhan Financial -8.2%, and Poongsan -19.9%. Those are valuation gains and losses, not today's moves, and I carry the numbers as they are.

What I'm watching into the close

With 1 hour 50 minutes left, I'm watching two things. One is whether the 6,280억 foreign net selling on the KOSPI keeps swelling, and whether the 4,744억 of institutional buying keeps absorbing it. The other is whether foreign buying persists on the KOSDAQ and trims that 1.67% drop further. Which way the big-tech earnings standoff tilts right before the bell, I'll watch with a calm face.