KOSPI Slides to 6,663 While the Won Climbs

Right now KOSPI sits at 6,663.65, down 3.56%, and KOSDAQ at 805.23, down 1.88%, as we move through the morning. Compared to my last brief at 09:10, KOSPI's drop has deepened by another 1.80 percentage points, while KOSDAQ barely moved (+0.07pp) — so it's really KOSPI doing the shaking today.

The big driver behind today's drop is flow. Foreigners sold about 2.2984 trillion won worth on KOSPI and institutions another 1.2184 trillion, with both foreigners and institutions net selling on KOSDAQ too. The won weakened to 1,348.17 against the dollar, up 0.67%, right as rate talk gets noisy — Trump is pressing the Fed to cut ahead of the FOMC meeting, and the Bank of Korea is reworking its neutral rate estimate. Last US session (close on 9/11) ended strong on semiconductor and AI momentum, with the S&P up 0.86% and the Nasdaq up 0.96%, but Korea's market isn't riding that tailwind today — it's moving the other way.

On my own book, Isu Petasys sits at -14.6%, HD Hyundai Electric at -6.9%, Poongsan holding up at +7.6%, and KT&G around -1.0%. Until the close I'll be watching whether the foreign and institutional selling eases up, and what more the rate-related headlines around the FOMC add to the won and the index.