KOSPI Shrugs Off Wall Street's Slip, Rides a Chip Rebound to Wider Gains

Right now the KOSPI is up 4.32% at 6,975.80, and the KOSDAQ is holding a 1.27% gain at 823.83. Compared to my 1:40pm check-in, that's another 0.41 points added to KOSPI's climb and 0.38 to KOSDAQ's — the mood out there feels calm and rate/credit conditions read friendly, yet the afternoon rally keeps widening rather than fading. Wall Street's last close (9/4) was soft, with only energy and clean energy holding up while cybersecurity and copper names lagged — but KOSPI is shrugging that off today, riding semiconductor-recovery optimism plus institutions piling in roughly ₩1.6694 trillion worth of buying. The won eased slightly to 1,355.41 against the dollar while the dollar index ticked up to 99.16, and my own book shows Microsoft +26.4%, NVIDIA +8.0%, Freeport-McMoRan +8.5%, and Duksan Neolux -4.9% — all cumulative marks, not today's move. With 20 minutes left to the close, what I'm watching is whether this chip-driven tailwind holds all the way to the bell.