South Korean benchmark eyes 4,000-point milestone
South Korea’s benchmark Kospi set another record Thursday, soaring above the 3,900 mark during intraday trading.
After opening at 3,835.79, 1.23 percent lower than the previous session, the Kospi quickly plunged to the 3,820 range. It soon reached the day’s low at 3,822.33 and swiftly reversed course, fueled by a buying spree from retail investors, and hit the 3,900 threshold at around 11:50 a.m.
The record leaves the index a foot away from reaching the historic 4,000-point milestone.
The Kospi climbed as high as 3,902.21 as of press time, breaking the previous intraday high of 3,893.06 logged Tuesday. Later in the session, it pared some gains and retreated to the 3,840 range. It stood at 3,844.84 as of 2 p.m., inching down 1 percent from the previous session.
Despite the lingering US-China trade tensions, which resulted in a sell-off in US tech stocks, expectations of a rally in the local market helped lift the index.
Retail investors net purchased shares amounting to 595 billion won ($413.2 million) on the bourse as of 2 p.m. Institutional investors, who were net buyers in the early trading hours, pivoted to a net selling stance in the afternoon, offloading 150 billion won. Foreign investors dumped 492 billion won.
Offshore investors, who had been leading the Kospi rally with heavy buying in recent months, have turned sluggish in recent days, offloading nearly 968 billion won worth of shares on the main bourse from Monday to Thursday as of press time.
With the bourse turning bearish and remaining flat in the afternoon trading hours due to overvaluation concerns, most blue-chip stocks had inched down as of press time.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics edged down 1.83 percent on-session, while SK hynix dipped 0.83 percent. LG Energy Solution and Samsung Biologics ticked down 1.76 percent and 0.94 percent, respectively.
Hanwha Aerospace was the only stock among the top 10 to gain, climbing 3.97 percent as of 2 p.m.
The Kospi has been on a record-breaking rally in October, successively surpassing milestones. It broke past the 3,500 mark on Oct. 2, then crossed 3,600 on Oct. 10. After surging past the 3,700 threshold on Oct. 17, it topped 3,800 on Oct. 21.
The secondary bourse Kosdaq stood at 871.05, down 0.92 percent from the previous day as of 2 p.m.
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