KOSPI Falls Below 7,000 as Institutional and Foreign Investors Lead Heavy Selling

On the 24th, the KOSPI index opened lower compared to the previous trading day. Exchange rates, KOSPI, and KOSDAQ indices are displayed on the status board at the dealing room of Hana Bank headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul. 2026.07.24 Photo by Dongju Yoon

The KOSPI index fell below the 7,000 mark due to net selling by institutional and foreign investors.

On July 24, the KOSPI closed at 6,690.62, down 406.27 points (5.72%) from the previous trading day. The provisional trading volume was 395.14 million shares, with a trading value estimated at 30.8964 trillion won.

By investor type, institutional investors and foreign investors recorded net sales of 1.9513 trillion won and 3.2828 trillion won, respectively, while retail investors made net purchases of 5.1783 trillion won. In the futures market, foreign investors made net sales of 614.8 billion won, while institutions and individuals recorded net purchases of 606.3 billion won and 26.7 billion won, respectively. Program trading saw net sales of 444.7 billion won in arbitrage trading and 2.5635 trillion won in non-arbitrage trading.

By sector, declines outnumbered gains. The electrical and electronics sector dropped by 7.86%. Manufacturing fell by 6.64%, medical precision by 6.0%, transportation equipment by 5.35%, securities by 4.52%, IT services by 4.16%, machinery and equipment by 3.99%, construction by 3.46%, retail by 3.38%, finance by 2.92%, chemicals by 2.34%, and insurance by 1.36%. In contrast, the pharmaceuticals sector rose by 5.99%, food, beverage, and tobacco by 1.49%, logistics and warehouse by 1.06%, and telecommunications by 1.06%.

Most of the leading large-cap stocks also declined in value. Samsung Electronics and SK hynix fell by 7.59% and 8.34%, respectively, while SK Square dropped by 9.17%, Samsung Electro-Mechanics by 8.43%, Hyundai Motor by 7.18%, LG Energy Solution by 5.32%, Samsung Life Insurance by 3.49%, KB Financial Group by 2.72%, and Samsung C&T by 5.0%. In contrast, Samsung Biologics surged by 10.08%.

The number of advancing stocks was provisionally tallied at 301, while the number of declining stocks stood at 585, and 30 stocks remained unchanged. Two stocks hit their upper limits.

The KOSDAQ index also posted sharp losses of over 5%. The index closed at 748.22, down 42.06 points (5.32%) compared to the previous session. By investor type, institutional and foreign investors recorded net sales of 358.7 billion won and 133.5 billion won, respectively, while retail investors made net purchases of 488.8 billion won.

Most of the large-cap KOSDAQ stocks also fell. Alteogen declined by 1.96%, EcoPro by 7.35%, EcoPro BM by 8.38%, Rainbow Robotics by 17.62%, Jusung Engineering by 13.97%, LIG Nex1 by 7.17%, Wonik IPS by 11.3%, PSK by 8.34%, ABL Bio by 2.56%, Pharmaresearch by 0.83%, and EO Technics by 9.13%. However, HLB ended the session up by 4.33%.

Meanwhile, the won/dollar exchange rate in the Seoul foreign exchange market was trading at 1,466.7 won, down 7.5 won from the previous day.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.