Samsung & SK Hynix Drag KOSPI Into a Circuit Breaker While KOSDAQ Sits It Out

Right now the KOSPI is up 4.38% at 6,623.24, riding a matching 7% pop in both Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix that was strong enough to trip a buy-side circuit breaker — the 23rd one this year, which made me pause mid-scroll for a second. Compared to my last update, KOSPI only tacked on about 0.07 points and KOSDAQ 0.30, so this isn't a fresh leg up so much as the market holding onto the gains those two chip giants already built. Both foreigners and institutions turned net buyers on the KOSPI, but the size was modest, which tells me the real engine here is the semiconductor concentration, not a broad wave of money coming in. KOSDAQ, meanwhile, is living in a completely different world — foreigners sold roughly 356.2 billion won worth there, so it's basically flat while KOSPI runs hot. Wall Street closed lower overnight, so Korea is bucking that trend entirely on its own today, and into the close I'll be watching whether this chip-driven heat ever spreads over to KOSDAQ.