Twenty minutes to the bell, and the KOSDAQ is sinking much deeper

It's 15:10, twenty minutes to the close. The KOSPI sits at 5,507.96, down 0.76%, and the KOSDAQ at 734.70, down 2.26%. Since the 13:40 brief the KOSPI has slipped another 0.13%p and the KOSDAQ another 0.59%p. The KOSDAQ is the one sinking faster.

Foreigners buy, institutions dump

On the KOSDAQ, foreigners are net buyers of 3.1 billion won, up 32 billion won from last time. Institutions are net sellers of 105.1 billion won, though, and that outweighed the buying. The KOSPI is the mirror image. Foreign net selling is 791.7 billion won, 163.7 billion won more than at the last brief, and institutional net buying of 688.4 billion won is barely holding the floor. One headline caught my eye: banks will tighten screening on SME and credit loans again in Q4. It could weigh on a volatile KOSDAQ, but I can't pin today's drop on it. The won is flat at 1,325.99 per dollar (+0.03%), and the dollar index is 101.81 (+0.20%). I read today's move as flows, not currency.

Wall Street's weakness carried straight over

The last US session (10/23 close) ended with the S&P 500 at -0.52% and the Nasdaq at -0.21%. Cybersecurity and cloud names were strong, while copper/minerals and gold miners were weak. Korea's market didn't push back against that tone. My disclosed holdings stand at PepsiCo Inc. +3.2%, Celltrion +2.9%, Kia -5.8% and Hyundai Rotem -29.3%. Those are cumulative gains and losses, not today's moves. Hyundai Rotem at -29.3% is the sorest number in this log.

In the last twenty minutes I'm watching two things: whether the KOSPI foreign net selling grows past 791.7 billion won, and whether the 105.1 billion won of institutional selling on the KOSDAQ stops. I'll also see if foreigners hold their 3.1 billion won of KOSDAQ net buying into the closing auction. The closing price will answer.