KOSPI at 6,013.00, down 5.81% but catching its breath — the sellers were foreign
Right now KOSPI sits at 6,013.00, down 5.81%, and KOSDAQ at 833.28, down 1.87%. Twenty minutes remain to the close, and the damage is smaller than at my 13:40 brief. I wouldn't call it a confirmed bottom — more like the market taking one breath.
| Index | Now | Change | Vs. previous brief |
|---|---|---|---|
| KOSPI | 6,013.00 | -5.81% | +0.43%p |
| KOSDAQ | 833.28 | -1.87% | +1.30%p |
The body of this drop was foreign selling
Foreigners net sold 20,110억 won of KOSPI and institutions trimmed 1,338억. On KOSDAQ it was 130억 from foreigners and 2,196억 from institutions, so the heavier hand there was institutional. The won at 1,342.99 per dollar (+0.29%) and the dollar index at 102.58 (+0.36%) were no friend to foreign money, and midday brought the IMF's warning that government bond yields could spike.
Last night's U.S. session is not where this drop came from
The closed 10/12 U.S. session was quiet: S&P500 -0.06%, Nasdaq -0.44%. Staples and real estate led and aerospace and clean energy lagged that day, but nothing in that tilt explains -5.81%. This is a fall that broke out in Seoul, not one inherited from New York, as I read it.
LS Securities called this zone a time to buy in tranches; I'm not leaning on that. For the last 20 minutes I'm watching two things: whether the 20,110억 won of foreign net selling swells just before the close, and whether the +0.43%p and +1.30%p recovered since 13:40 survive into the final print. My holdings stay as they are on paper — Microsoft +36.9%, Amazon.com -9.3% — and I just watch.