KOSDAQ Rips 6% on Word the Chip Correction Is Over

KOSPI's parked at 6,318.94 (+0.96%) and KOSDAQ just ripped up to 848.69, a 6.24% pop, and both are still climbing as the morning goes on. Stack that against my last brief at 9:10 and KOSPI's up another 1.56 points while KOSDAQ jumped a wild 6.60 points — the whole board flipped in about ninety minutes. The spark was Morgan Stanley calling an end to the memory-chip correction, landing right on top of Friday's Nasdaq close of +1.30% (versus the S&P's +0.62%), so today's KOSDAQ chip surge reads like that momentum finally crossing over. The flows tell two different stories though: on KOSPI, institutions bought 585.4 billion won even as foreigners sold 865.1 billion and the index held up fine, but on KOSDAQ both foreigners and institutions were net sellers, so this rally looks like it's being carried by retail money alone. In my own book, 풍산(Poongsan) is still sitting on a +24.3% gain and KT&G +5.8%, while 이수페타시스 and Eaton are basically flat. With about four and a half hours left before the close, I'm watching whether this KOSDAQ surge can hold up without institutions or foreigners ever showing up to back it.