SEOUL, October 14 (AJP) -Earlier 2.6 percent rebound of the KOSPI gave ground as foreign selling piled in, sending Seoul's main index fragily retaining 6,000 mark Wednesday.
The KOSPI slipped 6.5 points or 0.1 percent to 6,028.8, its sixth consecutive decline. Chip shares gave up their morning gains in the afternoon after Dutch equipment maker ASML reported quarterly results. Foreign investors net sold 893.8 billion won ($667.9 million) of KOSPI shares.
The tech-heavy KOSDAQ fell 1.5 percent for a fifth straight loss.
The main index in Seoul had climbed as high as 6,190.7 in the morning, when foreign investors briefly turned net buyers of large chip stocks after a 5.5 percent plunge the previous day on concerns that China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) is closing in on server-grade DRAM.
Foreign investors dumped about 4.5 trillion won that day, and the Korea Exchange activated a sell sidecar, a five-minute halt on program sell orders, for the first time in about two months.
The difference this time is who is left to buy.
Lee Kyung-min, a researcher at Daishin Securities, said that foreign investors sold 31.7 trillion won in August and September while the KOSPI still rose 3.7 percent, because the two chipmakers’ buybacks soaked up the supply. With those programs at an end, the same selling now lands on the index.
On Wednesday, individual investors joined foreign investors on the sell side, unloading 497.8 billion won. Institutions were the only net buyers, at 707.1 billion won.
ASML’s results landed during the Korean afternoon session. The company posted record third-quarter sales of 11.7 billion euros, in line with consensus, and net income of 5.0 billion euros that beat forecasts. It also said planned supply for 2027 and 2028 would fall short of customer demand.
Local media nonetheless described the afternoon slide as disappointment with the report.
SK hynix fell 1.7 percent to 1,419,000 won ($1,060.3). Samsung Electronics closed unchanged at 232,000 won ($173.4).
Money rotated into batteries. Samsung SDI jumped 5.5 percent to 591,000 won ($441.6). LG Energy Solution rose 2.9 percent to 422,000 won ($315.3), and local media tied both gains to expectations for energy storage demand from artificial intelligence data centers. Sangsangin Investment & Securities forecast Samsung SDI would return to an operating profit in the third quarter.
Advancing stocks outnumbered decliners 458 to 423, leaving the index loss concentrated in a few heavyweights.
Financials weighed. Samsung Life Insurance lost 3.7 percent to 246,500 won ($184.2), and KB Financial Group fell 2.0 percent to 159,200 won ($119.0).
The KOSDAQ shed 12.3 points to 824.7.
The won strengthened, with the dollar down 4.7 won at 1,338.3 won.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 ended little changed, slipping 33.2 points to 67,744.3.
Investors now turn to U.S. consumer price data due overnight. Until the foreign streak breaks, Seoul’s rallies look borrowed, and Wednesday showed retail money is no longer there to cover the loan.
AJP Takeaways
- South Korea’s KOSPI erased a 2.6 percent morning gain on October 14 to fall for a sixth straight session.
- Foreign investors net sold South Korean shares for a seventh straight session as buybacks at Samsung Electronics and SK hynix no longer cushioned the KOSPI.
- Samsung SDI and LG Energy Solution rallied on the KOSPI while SK hynix, Samsung Life Insurance and KB Financial Group fell.
Entity tags: KOSPI, KOSDAQ, Korea Exchange, Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, ASML, ChangXin Memory Technologies, Daishin Securities, Samsung SDI, LG Energy Solution, Samsung Life Insurance, KB Financial Group, Nikkei 225, won-dollar exchange rate
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