Park Han-sol reports on Korea's financial regulators, along with fintech and insurance. She previously wrote about the art world, from biennales and exhibitions to fairs and auctions, with a focus on Seoul and the figures shaping the scene. Before joining The Korea Times, she spent a year at ABC News' Seoul bureau, contributing to coverage of major Asia-Pacific events.
Seoul stocks reverse earlier sharp decline as retail investors rush to buy blue chips
A stock ticker at Hana Bank headquarters in central Seoul shows the benchmark KOSPI closing at 5,438.87, down 21.59 points, or 0.4 percent, Friday. The secondary bourse Kosdaq rose 4.87 points, or 0.43 percent, to finish at 1,141.51. Yonhap
By Park Han-sol
KOSPI falls 0.4% to close at 5,438, while Kosdaq rises 0.43% to 1,141.51
Seoul stocks recovered most of their earlier losses on Friday, as a wave of retail buying helped offset a sharp opening decline triggered by prolonged Middle East tensions and a slump in semiconductor shares following Google’s TurboQuant announcement.
According to the Korea Exchange, the benchmark KOSPI opened at 5,300.61, down 159.85 points, or 2.93 percent from the previous session, and briefly slipped down to the 5,220 mark. It later rebounded and recouped most of its losses, closing at 5,438.87, down 21.59 points, or 0.4 percent.
Shares of Samsung Electronics, which opened at 172,100 won, closed at 179,700 won, down 0.22 percent from the previous day. SK hynix followed a similar pattern, rising from an opening price of 890,000 won to finish at 922,000 won, down 1.18 percent from a day earlier.
The earlier selloff followed Google’s unveiling of TurboQuant, a compression algorithm designed to reduce memory requirements in large language AI models by up to sixfold. The development raised concerns that demand for AI memory chips, a key component in training such models, could weaken, but some of the initial shock appeared to fade during the session.
Foreign investors were heavy sellers, offloading a net 3.89 trillion won ($2.58 billion) in shares. Retail investors and institutions, however, stepped in to absorb the selling, purchasing 2.71 trillion won and 777.2 billion won, respectively, helping to limit the decline.
The secondary Kosdaq index opened at 1,119.77, down 16.87 points, or 1.5 percent, but reversed its course to close at 1141.51, up 4.87 points, or 0.43 percent, from the previous session.
A similar pattern played out on the Kosdaq, where foreign investors sold a net 232.6 billion won, while retail and institutional investors bought 170 billion won and 50.7 billion won, respectively, driving the index into positive territory.
The Korean won remained weaker against the U.S. dollar, though the move was marginal.
In Seoul’s onshore foreign exchange market, the won opened at 1508.6 won per dollar, down 1.6 won from the previous session, before closing at 1,508.9 won against the dollar, down 1.9 won, extending its losing streak to a third straight day.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude hovered around $94.24 per barrel, while Brent crude, the global benchmark, remained above $109. Dubai crude, which accounts for about 80 percent of Korea’s oil imports, traded even higher at around $130.93 per barrel.
As oil prices rise, demand for dollars to cover import costs increases, inevitably putting downward pressure on the won.