Samsung and SK hynix lift the KOSPI, then drag it lower

Samsung Electronics and SK hynix pulled Korea’s stock market up on Nov 2, then pulled it back down within hours of the next morning’s open. The KOSPI, the country’s main index, moved with them both ways.

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A 4% to 5% drop in the first hours of Nov 3

Samsung Electronics was down 4.59% and SK hynix was down 5.10% in early trading on Nov 3, Seoul Economic Daily reported in an update filed at 09:47 KST. The KOSPI opened 2.46% lower, at 5,715.19, the outlet said. Early in the session the index traded near the 5,700 level, according to Seoul Economic Daily.

The weakness showed up before the main session began. In pre-market trading, a session held ahead of the regular open, both stocks were more than 3% lower, Seoul Economic Daily reported at 08:32 KST.

The outlet gave two explanations at different times of the morning. Its earlier report said doubts about whether AI spending can turn a profit had come back, after Oracle set out a plan to raise $20 billion. Its later report pointed instead to heavy selling of AI stocks in the US. Neither Samsung nor SK hynix has commented on the moves.

Samsung’s size is what turns its share price into a market event. At the Nov 2 close, the company made up 29.95% of the total market value of the KOSPI 200, the index of 200 large Korean companies. A move of several percent in one stock with that weight shifts the benchmark on its own, and SK hynix adds to it when the two move together, as they did on both days.

A rebound that put the KOSPI back above 5,800

The day before, the two chipmakers were moving the other way. Both rebounded on Nov 2, Seoul Economic Daily reported, and the KOSPI ended the session up 2.24% at 5,859.08. That close lifted the index back over the 5,800 mark, the outlet said.

Samsung Electronics closed at 229,000 won (about US$170.41), up 1.78% from the previous session on Oct 30. SK hynix gained 3.81% to finish at 1,472,000 won (about US$1,095.40). Both did better than the TIGER 200 ETF, an exchange-traded fund that tracks the KOSPI 200, which rose 1.42% over the same session.

Korean institutions, such as asset managers, pension funds and insurers, made net purchases of 1.2 trillion won (about US$893 million) of KOSPI shares that day, Seoul Economic Daily reported. That means their purchases exceeded their selling by that amount across the market.

Foreign investors went the other way. Their net trading in KOSPI shares on Nov 2 came to net selling of 371.1 billion won (about US$276 million). That figure covers every KOSPI stock, not Samsung or SK hynix alone, so it does not show which way foreign money moved in either chipmaker.

The split matters for readers outside Korea because foreign and local investors often take opposite sides in Seoul. On Nov 2, local institutions supplied the net demand behind the index’s climb above 5,800, while foreign accounts were reducing their holdings across the market as a whole. For how the two chipmakers sit within the wider market, the KOSPI heatmap sizes each stock by its market value.

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Information only, not investment advice.