Kospi bounces back after Thursday's 7.57% plunge, recovering the 5,650 level
Kosdaq also rises; individuals and institutions net buyers as foreigners sell for 9th straight session
Wall Street gains, easing Treasury yields lend support
The Kospi, which had fallen for seven consecutive sessions in a prolonged rout, rebounded more than 1 percent in early trading Friday.
The recovery was driven by bargain hunting after Thursday's steep decline of more than 7 percent, with gains on Wall Street and a pullback in government bond yields helping to partially restore investor confidence. However, the upside remained capped as foreign investors extended their net selling to a ninth straight session.
According to Korea Exchange, the Kospi opened up 99.77 points, or 1.80 percent, at 5,653.99 and has held its gains since. The index briefly touched 5,662.30, a gain of 1.95 percent, before trimming its advance to as little as 0.65 percent, or 5,590.33.
Retail investors are leading the rebound. Individuals posted net purchases of 146.9 billion won ($110 million) on the main Kospi market, while institutions were net buyers of 42.7 billion won. Foreign investors remained net sellers by 250 billion won, extending their selling streak to nine consecutive sessions.
Overnight gains on Wall Street also appeared to lend support. All three major US indexes closed higher as Treasury yields stabilized. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.08 percent, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.33 percent and 0.08 percent, respectively.
CoreWeave, the neo-cloud provider whose results had stoked concerns about AI infrastructure investment, fell nearly 10 percent at one point before ultimately closing up 5.9 percent.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said at a Bloomberg event that CoreWeave's competitiveness was growing stronger every day.
The US producer price index for September rose 1.3 percent from the previous month, topping market expectations. However, retail sales growth, excluding gas station receipts, came in at a modest 0.2 percent, confirming a slowdown in consumer spending.
US Treasury yields fell sharply, led by longer-dated maturities. The 10-year yield dropped 12 basis points to 5.05 percent, while the 30-year yield fell more than 11 basis points to 5.40 percent. One basis point equals 0.01 percentage point.
Domestic markets opened higher across the board. The moves reflected bargain hunting following Thursday's severe losses — the Kospi fell 7.57 percent and the Kosdaq dropped 7.65 percent, steep enough to trigger circuit breakers on both markets for the first time in about two and a half months.
Among the two semiconductor heavyweights, Samsung Electronics was up 1.43 percent while SK hynix slipped 0.32 percent. Both had opened around 2 percent higher but have since diverged as gains narrowed.
The Kosdaq also advanced, opening up 11.35 points, or 1.49 percent, at 772.17 and briefly rising as high as 776.48, a gain of 2.06 percent. On the Kosdaq, retail investors and institutions were net buyers of 125.9 billion won and 9.9 billion won, respectively, while foreign investors were net sellers of 137.2 billion won.
th5@heraldcorp.com
