The 6,000 line gave way this morning — KOSPI at -5.45% with a sidecar hit

Right now KOSPI sits at 6,036.51, -5.45%, and KOSDAQ at 818.10, -3.66%. Against the 09:10 brief, KOSPI slid another -1.80%p while KOSDAQ clawed back +1.17%p of its drop. Same rout, but the big board hurts more and the small one caught its breath.

The sidecar rang, and the drop kept widening

The hand pushing KOSPI down is foreign money. After the news of China closing in on semiconductors, 20,110억 poured out as net selling, KOSPI200 futures fell 5.08%, and a sell-side sidecar fired for the first time in two months. Program sell orders were frozen for five minutes, yet the slide only deepened and 6,000 broke. On KOSDAQ, institutions' 2,196억 net selling stands out more than foreigners' 130억, and still the index is hurting less than it was last brief.

Overnight Wall Street (10/12 close) was calm, S&P500 -0.06% and Nasdaq -0.44%, with consumer staples and energy leading. Today's shock didn't inherit that tape; it went against it. The won is at 1,342.99 per dollar (+0.29%) and the dollar index at 102.56 (+0.34%), both a touch higher. My public holdings read Poongsan -13.7%, Orion -13.8%, KB Financial -10.2% and KT&G +3.3%, and that's all I'll say about them.

There are 4 hours 50 minutes left to the close. I'm watching whether foreign net selling grows past 20,110억 and whether the drop deepens below 6,000. I'm also watching whether KOSDAQ keeps the +1.17%p it won back since the last brief.