KOSPI -2.14%, KOSDAQ +0.86% — Foreign Selling Splits the Afternoon

At 1:40pm, the KOSPI sits at 6,929.51, down -2.14%, while the KOSDAQ is up at 851.73, +0.86%. Compared with the 12:10 brief, the KOSPI has slipped another -2.31%p and the KOSDAQ has climbed another +0.29%p. In an hour and a half, the two markets have pulled in opposite directions.

Foreigners turned up the selling only on the KOSPI

The cause sits on one side of the flow data. Foreign investors are net-selling 4,987억 won on the KOSPI, and versus the last brief that selling intensified by 5,466억 won — institutions' 3,233억 won of net buying couldn't fully offset it. On the KOSDAQ, foreigners are still net-selling 476억 won, but the trend swung about 89억 won toward buying, with institutions adding 106억 won of their own.

The semiconductor-and-quantum-computing strength from the last US session (close of 9/25) seems to have landed on the KOSDAQ side, while utility-and-energy weakness stuck to the KOSPI. The won climbed to 1,367.36 per dollar (+0.36%) even as the dollar index fell to 100.97 (-0.32%) — a weak dollar with a weakening won reads like the KOSPI's selling pressure spilled into the currency too. News that Lee Hyung-il and Shin Hyun-song pledged to coordinate on prices and financial stability, and that the deputy prime minister and BOK governor discussed currency stability and digital-finance cooperation, both landed around the same window.

With 1 hour 50 minutes left before the close, what I'm watching is whether foreign selling on the KOSPI eases, and whether the KOSDAQ's semiconductor-and-quantum tailwind holds into the close. My open positions stand at HD Hyundai Electric -11.5%, Orion -8.1%, KB Financial -1.8%, and Poongsan at +8.6% — a snapshot as of now, not today's move.