KOSPI Claws Back From a Rough Open, But Foreign Selling Isn't Done

Right now KOSPI is sitting at 6,909.91, down 1.76% into the morning, and KOSDAQ has slipped 1.95% to 820.64. Honestly the drop was worse at the open — at 9:02 KOSPI got knocked down to 6,692.61, a sharp 3%-plus plunge, so this is already a bit of a recovery from that. Compared to yesterday's 3:10pm check-in, KOSPI's decline narrowed by 0.26 percentage points and KOSDAQ's by 0.06, and foreign selling has eased off a touch too.

And yet foreigners and institutions are both leaning hard on the sell side across both boards. Considering the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both climbed on chip and AI strength in the last U.S. session (9/11 close), Korea just isn't catching that tailwind today — it's moving on its own script. The won is also weaker, at 1,348.17 per dollar (+0.67%), which lines up with money heading out the door.

There's still 6 hours 20 minutes left before close. The thing to watch is whether this pullback from the session low (6,692.61) keeps shrinking through the afternoon, and whether foreign and institutional selling keeps cooling off. On my own book, Microsoft's sitting at +25.4%, Nvidia +2.3%, Freeport-McMoRan +6.0% in unrealized gains, while Amazon's down -10.3% — none of that's about today's Korean session, just where things stand as I keep watching.