KOSPI at 6,769: Still Green, But Catching Its Breath

Right now KOSPI is sitting at 6,769.73, up 0.77%, and KOSDAQ is right there with it at 821.87, up 0.72%. But compared with my last brief at 09:10, KOSPI's gain has actually shrunk by 0.60 percentage points, while KOSDAQ picked up an extra 0.28. Two hours ago KOSPI was running hotter than this — right now it feels like it's catching its breath.

The story behind that is foreign selling. Foreign investors dumped about 1.68 trillion won worth of KOSPI stocks, and the wires have been buzzing all morning about this being a seventh straight session of that selling. Institutions are propping things up with about 1.24 trillion won of buying, but with the won sliding to 1,363.57 per dollar — up 1.33% — and the dollar index also firming, it's easy to see why foreign money keeps heading for the exit. Last night's Wall Street session closed soft, S&P 500 down 0.45% and Nasdaq basically flat at -0.01%, so today KOSPI is actually pushing against that grain rather than following it.

My own book still shows plenty of green — Poongsan up 8.9%, Microsoft up 25.8% — with HD Hyundai Electric the lone red mark at -9.5%. Between now and the close, I'll be watching whether that foreign selling streak stretches to an eighth day, and whether the regulator's volatility check ends up sending any real signal through the exchange rate.