KOSPI closed back above 7,000 for the first time in five sessions as institutional buying offset heavy retail selling. Refiners led the charge after China reportedly halted refined-product exports and Brent crude topped $100.
Korean stocks staged a sharp intraday reversal on October 1 as Micron’s earnings beat and news that 2026 HBM supply is sold out sent semiconductor names surging. KOSPI closed up 1.95% at 6,971.35; KOSDAQ soared 4.48%.
KOSPI closed down 0.48% at 6,838.04 after surrendering an early 1% gain, as foreign investors sold roughly $1.5 billion ahead of US PCE data and Micron earnings. KOSDAQ rose 0.72% on chip-equipment, battery and biotech strength.
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.