Kospi -5.62%, Trimming the Drop a Bit With 20 Minutes to the Bell

Right now the Kospi sits at 6,483.93, down 5.62%, with the closing bell twenty minutes out — but that's actually 0.13 points less negative than my 13:40 check-in, so this reads more like the market holding the line than caving in. Overnight, Nasdaq fell 1.33% and long-term rates kept climbing, a theme that carried straight into this morning's headlines, and institutions dumping 795.1 billion won worth of Kospi names looks like the main force dragging the index down. Foreign investors went the other way, net buying 91.4 billion won, but that wasn't nearly enough to offset the institutional selling, while the Kosdaq only slipped 0.77% to 827.77 yet actually widened its loss by 0.18 points since my last check. In my own book, Poongsan is still holding up nicely at +14.3% while Isu Petasys remains rough at -9.5%. Into the close I'm watching whether institutional selling keeps pressing or the Kospi manages to hold onto this small rebound.