KOSPI Slips Past 3%, KOSDAQ Goes Its Own Way

At 9:10am KST the KOSPI sits at 6,696.96, down 3.12%, while the KOSDAQ is up 1.42% at 813.33 — two very different faces on the same morning. Compared to my last check-in though, the KOSPI's drop eased by 0.22 points and the KOSDAQ's gain grew by 0.17 points, so the worst tremor might already be behind us. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix cratered and dragged the headline index down, picking up right where overnight Wall Street (8/24 close) left off — chips were weak there too and the Nasdaq slipped 0.76%. Foreigners dumped even more KOSPI shares, ₩3.6691 trillion worth, while over on the KOSDAQ they flipped to net buying, ₩241.6 billion worth — total opposite moods. The won eased slightly to 1,384.98 per dollar, and the rate-and-credit backdrop still feels calm. In my own book, Microsoft's sitting at +23.3% and Freeport-McMoRan at +24.2%, still smiling, while Nvidia at -1.9% and Amazon at -8.4% haven't gotten there yet. Into the close I'm watching whether the chip selloff calms down and whether that KOSPI foreign selling finally lets up.