Still up, but the momentum's cooling off

Right now KOSPI sits at 6,732.05, up 0.21%, and KOSDAQ's at 821.65, up 0.69%, as we roll into early afternoon. But stack that against my 10:40 brief and KOSPI's gain has shrunk by 0.56 percentage points, with KOSDAQ trimmed a touch too. The morning's brisk start has turned into a bit of a breather past lunch.

Behind that fade is the flow of money. On KOSPI, foreigners sold off 1.6846 trillion won worth while institutions caught 1.2371 trillion won of it, just barely holding the index up. The won slipped to 1,363.57 against the dollar, down 1.33%, and the dollar index climbed 0.70% too — looks like overnight news of the Fed hiking rates and hinting at more tightening ahead is rattling both the won and foreign sentiment here. And the overnight US session (close of 9/16), where cybersecurity names ran hot while semiconductors and copper/mining names lagged, seems to be leaning on our own chip names today too.

My own book sits at KT&G -1.2%, HD Hyundai Electric -10.1%, Poongsan +8.1%, and Microsoft +25.8% — that's just where things stand, separate from today's moves, so nothing more to add there. With about three hours twenty minutes left until close, I'm watching whether the foreign selling keeps up, whether institutions keep absorbing it, and whether the won keeps sliding.