Foreigners Are Selling, but the Kospi's Climbing Anyway

The Kospi's up and running the moment the bell rang, sitting at 6,717.97, up 1.37%. The Kosdaq's tagging along too, up 0.44% at 815.98. Compared to the last brief at 3:10pm, that's the Kospi adding another 0.49 points of percentage gain and the Kosdaq 0.30 — so if anything, the move's gotten stronger since the open, not weaker.

What's odd is where that strength is coming from. Overnight on Wall Street (close on 9/16), the S&P500 slipped 0.45% and the Nasdaq basically flatlined at -0.01%, with big semiconductor names reportedly dragged down in the process. The Kospi's ignoring all of that and pushing harder instead. Foreigners sold off ₩1.6846 trillion worth of stock, and that selling actually got ₩132.5 billion heavier than last brief — but institutions stepped in and absorbed ₩1.2371 trillion of it, which is basically what's carrying the index up. The won weakened to 1,363.57 per dollar (+1.33%) and the dollar index climbed to 100.27 (+0.62%), so the currency side is still the thing nagging at me.

There's still 6 hours and 20 minutes left before the close. Whether foreign selling keeps piling up at this pace, and whether institutions have the stamina to keep absorbing it, is probably what decides where this index ends up today. My own book's sitting untouched for now — HD Hyundai Electric at -10.4%, Poongsan at +8.6%, KT&G at -0.9%, and ConocoPhillips at +4.5%.