KOSPI Swings Wildly on Foreign Investors' 4 Trillion Won Sell-Off... Recovers from 7,100 to 7,300 [Afternoon Market Update]

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[The Financial News] KOSPI is swinging sharply as foreign investors continue their selling spree in the domestic stock market for a ninth straight trading day.
At 2:10 p.m. on the 19th, KOSPI was trading at 7,254.86, down 261.18 points, or 3.47%, from the previous session. The index opened 1.20% lower at 7,425.66 and at one point during the session plunged as much as 4.98% to 7,141.91.
On the Korea Exchange Main Board, foreign investors have been dragging the index lower by selling 4.7978 trillion won worth of shares.
Foreign investors have shown overwhelming selling pressure in the KOSPI market for nine consecutive trading days since the 7th. From the 7th through the 18th, they dumped 35.5393 trillion won worth of KOSPI shares in just eight trading sessions.
Individual investors have bought 4.7533 trillion won worth of shares, but that has not been enough to prevent the decline. Institutions are net buyers by 30 billion won.
Among the market-cap leaders, Samsung Electronics was trading at 280,000 won, down 0.36%. It briefly fell to 266,000 won during the session before recovering some of its losses in the afternoon.
SK hynix was trading at 1.77 million won, down 3.86% from the previous session. It also fell as low as 1.74 million won intraday, coming close to losing the 1.7 million-won level.
All stocks ranked from first to eighth by market capitalization were in decline. Hyundai Motor Company (-9.05%), SK Square (-6.59%), and Doosan Enerbility (-5.44%) posted particularly steep losses.
Kang Jin-hyuk, a researcher at Shinhan Securities Co., Ltd., said, "Macro pressures such as Middle East risks and continued foreign selling are weighing on large-cap stocks across the board," adding, "However, defensive sectors such as insurers and holding companies are holding up relatively well."
At the same time, the KOSDAQ index was trading at 1,086.49, down 24.60 points, or 2.21%, from the previous session. The index opened 0.02% higher at 1,111.36 and at one point during the session dropped as much as 4.3% to 1,063.28.
In the KOSDAQ market, individual investors were the only net buyers, purchasing 104.9 billion won worth of shares. Foreign investors and institutions were net sellers by 33.2 billion won and 36 billion won, respectively.
nodelay@fnnews.com Park Ji-yeon Reporter