Twenty minutes to the bell, KOSPI at -1.54% but clawing back

Right now KOSPI sits at 6,699.41, down 1.54%, and KOSDAQ at 894.48, down 0.44%. Since the 13:40 brief, KOSPI has gained 0.31%p and KOSDAQ 0.59%p. Still red, but it looks like the market touched bottom and stepped up one stair.

Foreigners dumped, and institutions didn't catch it

To me, the foreigners' 2,618.8bn won of net selling on KOSPI is the body of this drop. Institutions sold 710.1bn won too, so nobody was there to cushion it. On the news side, LG Electronics missed Q3 expectations by 24%, and an analysis said Shinhan Financial's Q3 profit fell 6.5%. Both cited the weaker won-dollar rate, which stands at 1,339.74 won (-0.30%).

Not following Wall Street, going against its grain

As of the 10/7 close, S&P500 and Nasdaq were both down 0.22%, with utilities and cybersecurity strong and biotech weak. That's a finished session, settled numbers. Against that, KOSPI's -1.54% today isn't a copy of the US move; it looks like flows drove their own drop. The dollar index at 102.24 (+0.40%) gets a sideways glance from me as a backdrop to the foreign selling. My public holdings read Poongsan -8.7%, KT&G +2.2%, HD Hyundai Electric -22.6%, Orion -13.8%. Valuation gains and losses, nothing more.

Till the bell, I'm watching two things: whether the foreigners' 2,618.8bn won net selling swells further in the closing auction, and whether the narrower loss since 13:40 holds to the end. I'll also see if KOSDAQ's faster recovery than KOSPI lasts to the closing line.