Retail investors scoop up 2.8 trillion won on KOSPI as index hovers near flat line

According to Financial News, the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) managed to turn higher, supported by strong retail buying. KOSDAQ climbed 3% on the back of institutional inflows.
As of 3:00 p.m. on the 6th, the KOSPI was trading at 5,600.06, up 16.16 points, or 0.29%, from the previous session.
The index opened the day at 5,491.02, down 92.88 points (1.66%) from the previous close. As intraday volatility widened, it first climbed to as high as 5,609.98, then plunged more than 200 points to 5,381.27. In the afternoon, however, it pared losses and has been moving around flat territory.
On the main stock market, retail investors bought a net 2.8009 trillion won worth of shares. Foreign investors and institutions showed net selling of 1.9115 trillion won and 982.5 billion won, respectively.
Among large-cap stocks by market capitalization, major semiconductor names such as Samsung Electronics (-1.2%) and SK Hynix (-1.38%) were weak. In contrast, Hyundai Motor (1.09%), LG Energy Solution (0.4%), Samsung Biologics (0.06%) and Hanwha Aerospace (6.3%) advanced.
Overnight in the United States of America (U.S.), stocks came under pressure as risk-off sentiment spread amid continued instability in the Middle East, including an attack on an oil tanker by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and as international oil prices briefly climbed above 80 dollars during the session. The major indices deepened their intraday losses, but later trimmed part of the decline and closed off the lows after the U.S. government floated measures to stabilize oil prices late in the session.
Noh Dong-gil, a researcher at Shinhan Securities, said, "The market fell as a technical correction to the previous day's gains amid rising oil prices and heightened volatility in the won–dollar exchange rate." He added, "However, with the scale of foreigners' net selling in futures dropping sharply from 16,000 contracts the previous day, the extreme volatility has eased somewhat."
At the same time, the KOSDAQ was trading at 1,153.31, up 36.90 points, or 3.31%, from the previous session. The index had opened at 1,117.49, up 1.08 points (0.1%) from the prior close.
On the KOSDAQ market, retail investors sold 46.9 billion won and foreign investors offloaded 386.5 billion won, while institutions bought a net 441.8 billion won.
At one point during the session, as gains widened, a buy-side program trading halt (buy sidecar) was triggered on the KOSDAQ market for the second consecutive day.

nodelay@fnnews.com Park Ji-yeon Reporter