KOSPI's Near-4% Rally Catches Its Breath Before the Close

With about twenty minutes left before the close, the KOSPI is sitting at 6,596.55, up 3.96% on the day. That said, the gain has shrunk by 0.42 percentage points versus my 1:40pm brief, so the afternoon push feels like it's losing a bit of steam. The KOSDAQ, meanwhile, is holding a modest +0.22% even after foreigners dumped 356.2 billion won and institutions another 95.4 billion won — sturdier than those flows would suggest. Overnight in the US (8/11 close), the S&P 500 slipped 0.32% and the Nasdaq 0.60%, so today's KOSPI is basically running against that soft handoff, and the news that margin loan balances are bouncing back off their June low fits right into this recovery mood. Watching my own positions — Samsung Electronics +7.3%, SK Hynix +1.3%, Hanmi Semiconductor +4.6%, Isu Petasys -0.1% in unrealized P&L — I'll be watching how much of this gain survives into the closing auction.