Retail Buying and Tech Stocks Push Seoul Market Higher on May 12
The KOSPI is displayed on a board at Shinhan Bank’s dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, on May 12.
The KOSPI rose more than 1% in early trading on May 12, coming close to the ‘8,000-point’ mark.
As of 9:16 a.m. on May 12, the KOSPI stood at 7,927.11, up 104.87 points (1.34%) from the previous session.
The index opened at 7,953.41, up 131.17 points (1.68%) from the previous session, and is maintaining the 7,900 level, which it surpassed for the first time in history on May 12. It rose to as high as 7,999.67 during intraday trading.
In the Seoul foreign exchange market, the won-dollar exchange rate stood at 1,475.0 won, up 2.6 won from the previous session.
In terms of supply and demand, a tug-of-war between retail ‘buying’ and foreign ‘selling’ has continued for the fourth consecutive day up to May 12. In the benchmark KOSPI market, retail investors have net purchased 2.029 trillion won (approximately $1.375 billion) since early trading, supporting the index’s rise, while institutional investors are also showing a buying edge of 66.0 billion won.
On the other hand, foreign investors are limiting the upside of the index by net selling 2,140.8 billion won.
In the KOSPI 200 futures market, retail and foreign investors are both net buying, with 55.2 billion won and 14.2 billion won, respectively. Institutional investors appear to be net selling 63.5 billion won.
Overnight in the New York stock market, the three major indices closed slightly higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.19%, the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 index climbed 0.19%, and the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.10% higher. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq broke their previous record highs once again.
U.S. President Donald Trump pressured Iran by hinting at the possibility of resuming military actions, and the Iranian side also made remarks suggesting it was reviewing the resumption of military operations. Consequently, international oil prices jumped again, with Brent crude futures rising 2.9% from the previous trading day, but investors’ eyes turned to artificial intelligence (AI) related technology stocks.
Memory semiconductor stocks such as Qualcomm (+8.42%), Micron (+6.50%), Western Digital (+7.46%), and Seagate (+6.56%) continued their strength from the previous week, and driven by this, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 2.59%.
Seo Sang-young, a researcher at Mirae Asset Securities, explained, “The U.S. stock market started lower on President Trump’s mention of rejecting Iran’s proposal (regarding conditions to end the war), but it turned upward on expectations as the strength of some semiconductor companies such as Micron continued.”
The domestic stock market on May 12 started higher, supported by the tech-driven strength of the New York stock market, and is continuing its upward trend. However, the upside potential appears to be somewhat limited by investors who have turned to a wait-and-see approach ahead of the release of the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) for April, as well as the demand for profit-taking following recent sharp surges.
SK Hynix, which surged more than 11% the previous day, is trading at 1,911,000 won ($1,295.59), up 1.65% on May 12. At one point in early trading, it rose 4.63% to renew its new high at 1,967,000 won, but it has since reduced its gains.
Samsung Electronics is up 0.53% at 287,000 won ($194.58). After starting higher, it turned downward in early trading but then rebounded to an upward trend.
Among the top market capitalization stocks, all of the top 1 to 10 stocks are rising, including SK Square (0.93%), Hyundai Motor (6.19%), LG Energy Solution (1.07%), Doosan Enerbility (2.27%), and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (4.31%).
On the other hand, Hanwha Aerospace (-0.99%), KB Financial Group (-0.50%), Samsung SDI (-1.75%), and HD Hyundai Electric (-1.47%) are falling.
By sector, communications (4.24%), transportation and warehousing (3.54%), and transportation equipment and parts (3.15%) are leading the upward trend. Conversely, construction (-2.06%), electricity and gas (02.02%), and real estate (-1.84%) are weak.
At the same time, the KOSDAQ index stood at 1,223.77, up 16.43 points (1.36%).
The index opened at 1,214.90 on May 12, up 7.56 points (0.63%), and is continuing its upward trend.
In the KOSDAQ market, foreign and institutional investors are pushing up the index by net buying 34.8 billion won and 84.0 billion won, respectively. Retail investors are net selling 104.3 billion won.
Many of the top market capitalization stocks are showing strength, including Ecopro BM (0.45%), Ecopro (1.57%), Alteogen (5.08%), Rainbow Robotics (8.21%), and Kolon TissueGene (8.50%). Jusung Engineering (-0.49%), Wonik IPS (-3.04%), Robotis (-0.13%), and ISC (-0.62%) are in a downward trend.
Yoon Young-sil
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