Foreign investors net sold 2.90 trillion won (about $2.1B) of KOSPI shares as US yields topped 5.21%, dragging the index to a second straight loss at 6,870.81. The KOSDAQ rose 0.38% on retail buying, while construction and battery stocks sold off hard.
The overnight won rate Korean media quote every morning is not spot at all — it is the New York non-deliverable forward (NDF), a dollar-settled contract that fixes against Seoul’s daily market average rate. Here is how it is quoted, who trades it, and how to read the NDF-onshore gap as a signal.
The KOSPI dropped 2.70% to 6,889.74 in its first session after the Chuseok holiday as surging US Treasury yields triggered heavy foreign selling of chipmakers, while the KOSDAQ edged up 0.25% on an FDA-approval rally in HLB group stocks.
Korea withholds 22% on dividends paid to non-residents (often reduced to 10-15% by tax treaty), charges a securities transaction tax — 0.2% on KOSPI sales as of 2026 — on every sale, and exempts most foreign portfolio investors from capital-gains tax entirely. Here is how each rule is applied at source, how to claim the treaty rate before a record date, and how to reclaim over-withheld tax.
The KOSPI touched 7,171 on a US chip rally, then surrendered nearly all of it as retail investors dumped 1.6 trillion won. PCB makers jumped up to 29%, SK hynix fell, and the won strengthened to around 1,360 per dollar.
Micron’s fiscal quarters end in August, November, February and May, so it reports real DRAM/NAND numbers weeks before Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Here is how to read its bit-shipment guidance, HBM commentary, inventory days and capex as direct inputs into the next morning’s Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix open in Seoul.
Korea’s KOSPI jumped 1.65% to retake 7,000 for the first time in seven sessions, powered by record chip exports and heavy institutional buying of Samsung Electronics. But decliners outnumbered gainers, exposing a narrow, top-heavy rally.
The KOSPI jumped 2.66% to 6,894.23 as SK hynix and Samsung Electronics led a semiconductor rally, one day after heavy hawkish-Fed foreign selling. Five stocks hit Korea’s 30% daily limit while oil refiners fell on easing crude prices.
Korean IPOs allocate at least half the retail tranche by equal allotment — falling back to a random draw only when subscribers outnumber the available shares — let new listings trade anywhere from 60% to 400% of the offer price during the debut session, and release locked-up shares on a published lockup calendar. Here is how each mechanism works and how to read the supply-and-demand signals around it.
The KOSPI closed flat at 6,715.41 after the Fed’s first rate hike since 2023, as foreign investors sold Korean stocks for a seventh straight session — dumping chips but buying shipbuilders. The KOSDAQ rose for a third day and the won slid to around 1,381 per dollar.