KOSPI Trades Sideways After 6% Plunge... KOSDAQ Shows Signs of Recovery

Foreign and Institutional Investors Lead Selling
All Sectors Decline Except Construction Stocks

The KOSPI index, after plummeting by over 6%, is now fluctuating near the 6,500-point level. The KOSDAQ index, which started the session lower, is currently in recovery.

As of 12:37 p.m. on August 19, 2026, the KOSPI was trading at 6,503.59, down 5.33% from the previous session at the Korea Exchange. The KOSPI opened at 6,528.77, a decline of 4.96%. At 9:06 a.m. on the main board, a sell sidecar—a mechanism that temporarily halts program sell orders for five minutes—was triggered. Afterwards, the KOSPI climbed to 6,614.39 at 10:22 a.m. before falling back down to around 6,500, where it has been fluctuating since.

Foreign investors and institutions recorded net sales of 2.1054 trillion won and 1.2572 trillion won, respectively. In contrast, individual investors made net purchases amounting to 3.2274 trillion won.

By sector, with the exception of the construction sector, which rose 1.93%, all other sectors were on a downward trend. Electrical and electronics stocks declined by 7.25%, manufacturing by 6.01%, insurance by 5.78%, electric and gas by 5.16%, and the financial sector by 4.89%.

On the 18th, early in the trading session, the KOSPI index rose more than 3%, recovering the 7200 level. The status of the domestic stock market was displayed throughout the dealing room at the headquarters of Hana Bank in Jung-gu, Seoul. 2026.8.18 Photo by Kang Jinhyung

Among the top market capitalization stocks, apart from Hanwha Aerospace (up 1.3%), LG Energy Solution (up 1.1%), Samsung SDI (up 0.4%), and Samsung Biologics (up 0.3%), most equities saw declines. Samsung Life Insurance fell by 10.7%, followed by SK Square (down 10.6%), SK hynix (down 8.4%), Samsung Electronics (down 7.3%), and SK Inc. (down 6.9%).

The KOSDAQ is trading at 836.04, up 0.22% from the previous session. The KOSDAQ index initially opened at 810.08, down 2.89%, but rose to 840.5 at 10:10 a.m. and has been fluctuating since then.

Foreign investors and institutions posted net purchases of 35.1 billion won and 41.3 billion won, respectively, while individual investors recorded net sales of 79.6 billion won.

Among the top KOSDAQ market cap stocks, performances were mixed. Pado fell by 4.5%, as did SPG (down 4.5%), Hanamicron (down 3.9%), TSE (down 3.1%), and Park Systems (down 2.6%). On the other hand, ISC rose by 7.9%, with HPSP (up 6.2%), Seojin System (up 4.7%), PSK Holdings (up 4.5%), and Peptron (up 4.5%) also posting gains.

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