KOSPI Falls Nearly 2 Percent to 6,804, Its Lowest Close Since Sept. 17, as Foreign Investors Sell

SEOUL — South Korean stocks fell for a second session on Wednesday, with the KOSPI closing down 137.49 points, or 1.98 percent, at 6,803.90, the lowest finish since Sept. 17, as foreign selling outweighed a record night on Wall Street.

The index opened 1.11 percent lower and extended the loss into the close. The Kosdaq fell 2.34 percent to 898.43. Samsung Electronics ended down 1.29 percent, erasing an early gain, and SK Hynix lost 2.82 percent. Of 917 issues traded, 333 rose and 527 fell. Foreign investors were net sellers of about 2.61 trillion won, roughly $1.94 billion. Institutions sold a net 672.6 billion won. Retail investors bought a net 2.56 trillion won. The won was quoted at 1,340.4 to the dollar at 3:30 p.m., firmer than 1,343.6 at the previous close. Markets are shut Friday for a holiday.

The drop came after the Dow rose 0.49 percent overnight and the Nasdaq gained 0.45 percent to a record. Oil prices eased on supply relief, and bond yields pulled back from multi-decade highs. Local shares did not follow.

"Despite a record-setting rally in U.S. stocks, the domestic market was weak on foreign selling on anxiety over high bond yields," said Huh Jae-hwan, an analyst at Eugene Investment Securities. Kim Dae-jun of Korea Investment & Securities tied the recent weakness to cash, not to a single earnings miss. "Liquidity in the domestic market has dried up compared with the first half of the year. In this environment, it is difficult to expect a sharp recovery in large-cap stocks," he said.

Samsung reports preliminary third-quarter results on Thursday. Analysts expect operating profit to jump nearly ninefold on demand for artificial-intelligence memory, and they have also cut those forecasts by nearly 8 percent since the end of August. KB Securities said on Oct. 1 that Samsung's average selling price for high-bandwidth memory could more than double next year, helped by a larger share of higher-priced HBM4. The stock still finished lower. A profit print that large is already in the price if the cut to estimates is what traders are marking.

SK Hynix fell harder, 2.82 percent to about 1.75 million won, even as Nvidia and AMD rose in the U.S. session. The two Korean chipmakers are the index. A day they both close down, with foreigners selling 2.6 trillion won, is a day the KOSPI closes down, whatever the Nasdaq did.

The 6,803.90 finish is a second consecutive loss and a one-month low. It is not a break of the year's larger advance. Retail buying absorbed part of the foreign sale and did not stop the decline. Thursday's Samsung number is the next test, and the market will not be open Friday to trade it. Huh's point was the yields. Kim's was the missing liquidity. Both showed up in the same close.