SEOUL, June 11 (AJP) — After another volatile day — swinging between losses and gains more than 50 times — South Korean shares managed to end higher on Thursday.
But with the market's fear gauge touching a record high intraday, the rebound underscored the panic behind foreign capital outflows and aggressive retail bargain hunting.
The KOSPI rose 33.13 points, or 0.43 percent, to close at 7,763.95. The index opened 2.86 percent lower at 7,509.62 and briefly fell as low as 7,394.46, down more than 4 percent, before recovering to touch an intraday high of 7,800.62. The late recovery kept the benchmark above the 7,700 mark, but the rebound rested on a fragile foundation.
Foreign investors remained firmly on the sell side, dumping 1.46 trillion won worth of KOSPI shares, while institutions sold 756.7 billion won. Retail investors absorbed much of the pressure, buying 2.08 trillion won. The pattern reinforced the market's central tension: the index can still bounce, but the foreign money that powered much of the earlier rally is still heading for the exit.
The pressure was concentrated in large-cap names. Samsung Electronics fell 1.2 percent to 299,000 won after paring steeper early losses, while SK hynix reversed course to finish 2.6 percent higher at 2,101,000 won. LG Electronics added 0.9 percent to 226,000 won, but NAVER slipped 1.3 percent to 224,000 won and Doosan Enerbility lost 2.7 percent to 88,600 won. Hanwha Ocean, one of the recent beneficiaries of geopolitical tensions and defense-related buying, fell 5.2 percent to 104,500 won.
The day's move was not simply about Middle East risk. It was also about cash.
With SpaceX's long-awaited Nasdaq debut approaching, traders increasingly see the listing as a liquidity vacuum that could pull money away from existing equity positions, particularly Korean AI and semiconductor stocks that have been among Asia's most crowded trades this year.
The SpaceX factor did not single-handedly trigger the selling, but it gave global investors another reason to take profits from Korean names that had already run hard.
That theme was visible in individual stocks.
Spear, viewed by investors as a SpaceX supply-chain play, hit the daily limit, surging 29.9 percent to 38,500 won. The rally reflected growing appetite for Korean companies with direct or indirect exposure to the U.S. space company's listing.
Yet the same event that lifted aerospace-related names also raised concerns that broader market liquidity could be diverted elsewhere.
The KOSDAQ told a very different story.
The junior market jumped 45.30 points, or 4.76 percent, to close at 996.93, within sight of the 1,000-point threshold. The index opened lower at 937.17 but turned positive in morning trade and climbed as high as 997.11 during the session.
Unlike the KOSPI, where retail investors carried the market against foreign and institutional selling, the KOSDAQ rally was led by institutions, which bought a net 695.5 billion won. Retail investors sold 352 billion won, while foreign investors sold 360.1 billion won.
The strength was enough to trigger a buy-side sidecar at around 1:58 p.m., according to the Korea Exchange, marking the 10th such activation on the KOSDAQ this year and the first since Monday.
The rally was concentrated in semiconductor equipment and materials stocks.
Jusung Engineering surged 23.4 percent to 245,500 won, Wonik IPS jumped 20.8 percent to 141,000 won and Alteogen rose 10.2 percent to 347,000 won. Hyundai Movex also climbed 15.3 percent to 40,800 won.
The split between the KOSPI and KOSDAQ suggested investors were not abandoning the semiconductor story altogether.
Instead, money rotated away from crowded megacap positions and into smaller equipment and materials names. Healthcare providers, diversified telecom services and broadcasting and entertainment stocks also ranked among the day's strongest sectors, rising 7.7 percent, 7.3 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively.
Oil prices eased slightly, offering some relief.
WTI crude fell 0.5 percent to $89.56 a barrel, while Brent crude slipped 0.7 percent to $92.47 as investors weighed hopes that U.S. strikes
on Iran could eventually give way to renewed negotiations.
Global risk sentiment, however, remained fragile.
The VIX rose 6.4 percent to 21.13 while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 3.6 percent to 12,206.5, maintaining pressure on Asian chip sentiment.
The won traded around 1,529.9 against the U.S. dollar, remaining near global financial crisis-era levels as foreign investors continued to reduce exposure to Korean assets.
The currency's failure to stage a meaningful recovery suggests that equity rebounds driven largely by domestic buying may remain vulnerable if overseas funds continue cutting positions.
Across Asia, markets were mixed and far less volatile than Seoul.
Japan's Nikkei 225 edged up 0.1 percent to 64,217.3, while China's Shanghai Composite slipped 0.2 percent to 3,987.02 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.7 percent to 24,228.3.
Tokyo remained capped by profit-taking in AI and semiconductor shares, contrasting with Seoul's violent intraday swings and underscoring how much more exposed Korea remains to memory chips, foreign selling and leveraged retail trading.
Thursday's session was not a clean recovery.
The KOSPI survived an early rout, the KOSDAQ nearly reclaimed 1,000 and semiconductor-equipment stocks roared back, but foreign investors kept selling, the won stayed weak and SpaceX-linked liquidity fears continued to hang over Korea's most crowded trades.
Whether the rebound in KOSDAQ chip-equipment names can broaden into a more durable recovery remains the central question for Seoul heading into the next session.
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