KOSPI Falls More Than 3% on Institutional Selling, Closes at 5,530

On Oct. 22, an electronic board in the dealing room at Hana Bank's head office in Jung-gu, Seoul, displays the KOSPI, KOSDAQ and won-dollar exchange rate. The KOSPI opened at 5,670.11, down 65.55 points (1.14%) from the previous session, while the KOSDAQ opened at 789.84, down 2.92 points (0.37%). Both indexes have held near breakeven. 2026.10.22 Photo by Cho Yongjun

The KOSPI closed down more than 3%, pressured by institutional selling.

On Oct. 22, the KOSPI closed at 5,533.77, down 201.89 points (3.52%) from the previous day. Trading volume was provisionally tallied at 201.16 million shares, with trading value at 13.7003 trillion won.

By investor group, institutions posted net sales of 464.1 billion won, while foreign investors and individuals posted net purchases of 59.1 billion won and 382.2 billion won, respectively. In the futures market, by contrast, institutions posted net purchases of 519.2 billion won, while foreign investors and individuals posted net sales of 64.2 billion won and 344.6 billion won, respectively. Program trading recorded net sales of 6.4 billion won in arbitrage transactions and 292.4 billion won in non-arbitrage transactions.

Most sectors fell. The medical and precision instruments sector dropped 4.7%, while chemicals fell 4.67%, electrical and electronics 4.52%, manufacturing 4.15%, metals 3.31%, machinery and equipment 3.31%, pharmaceuticals 2.85%, transportation and warehousing 2.83%, securities 2.67%, transportation equipment 2.25%, communications 2.23%, financials 1.83%, entertainment and culture 1.7%, and textiles and apparel 1.57%. General services, meanwhile, rose 1.85%.

Most of the stocks with the largest market capitalizations fell. Samsung Electronics dropped 4.03%, while SK hynix fell 5.49%, SK Square 3.59%, LG Energy Solution 5.22%, Samsung Electro-Mechanics 1.97%, Samsung Biologics 3.95%, Hyundai Motor 2.58%, KB Financial Group 1.49%, Samsung Life Insurance 1.43%, Samsung C&T 0.52%, and Celltrion 1.67%.

There were 174 advancing stocks, 709 declining stocks and 32 unchanged stocks.

The KOSDAQ also closed down 3%. The KOSDAQ index ended the day at 764.1, down 28.66 points (3.62%) from the previous day. By investor group, institutions and foreign investors posted net sales of 100.3 billion won and 122 billion won, respectively, while individuals posted net purchases of 221 billion won.

Most of the stocks with the largest market capitalizations fell. Alteogen dropped 3.75%, while EcoPro fell 7.54%, EcoPro BM 9.66%, Jusung Engineering 8.93%, Rainbow Robotics 2.41%, HLB 2.48%, EO Technics 4.65%, Leeno Industrial 4.75%, Wonik IPS 7.92%, Sam Chun Dang Pharm 5.65%, Simtek 5.16%, HPSP 491%, and PSK Holdings 8.37%.

Meanwhile, in the Seoul foreign exchange market, the won-dollar exchange rate was trading at 1,323.0 won, down 3.0 won from the previous day.

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