Foreign Buyers Flex Muscle as KOSPI Jumps Over 2%

Right out of the gate, the KOSPI popped 2.42% to 6,977.94 while the KOSDAQ eked out a 0.38% gain to 864.65. That's a sharp break from Friday's US close (8/14), where both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq slipped slightly — and the biggest reason KOSPI is bucking that trend looks like foreign investors, who've piled in with over 3 trillion won in net buying, ramping up their pace by another 928.5 billion won since my last check-in. Institutions are still selling north of 1 trillion won, but foreign flows are simply overpowering them, and a Kiwoom Securities desk head's read that "worries over the National Pension Service's rebalancing are mostly resolved" seems to be easing the jitters left over from the recent pullback and circuit-breaker scare. My holdings sit unchanged for now — Samsung Electronics +15.2%, KT&G +1.0%, ConocoPhillips -0.1%, Schlumberger +0.0%. Between now and the close, I'm watching whether this foreign buying pace holds and whether the KOSDAQ starts closing the gap with KOSPI's rally.