KOSPI Falls More Than 4% Intraday on Foreign Selling; Sell-Sidecar Triggered

As political uncertainty eased following the U.S. midterm elections, the New York stock market closed higher, while South Korea's KOSPI opened lower. On Nov. 5, the KOSPI, KOSDAQ and won-dollar exchange rate were displayed in the dealing room at Hana Bank's headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul. The KOSPI opened at 5,580.09, down 103.71 points (1.82%) from the previous trading day, while the KOSDAQ opened at 713.49, down 1.46 points (0.20%). Both indexes have since widened their losses. Nov. 5, 2026. Photo by Cho Yongjun

The KOSPI is trading lower intraday, weighed down by selling by foreign investors.

As of 10:13 a.m. on Nov. 5, the KOSPI was trading at 5,448.82, down 4.1% from the previous day.

By investor type, institutions and individual investors were net buyers of 24 billion won and 846.5 billion won, respectively, while foreign investors were net sellers of 930 billion won, weighing on the index. In the futures market, institutions and foreign investors were net buyers of 15.6 billion won and 6.1 billion won, respectively, while individual investors were net sellers of 20.3 billion won.

Performance varied across sectors. Medical precision was down 8.58%, while electrical and electronics fell 7.14%, manufacturing 5.54%, machinery and equipment 4.34%, distribution 2.16%, real estate 1.69%, construction 1.87%, insurance 1.35%, transportation equipment 0.92%, chemicals 0.9%, and transportation and warehousing 0.82%. By contrast, entertainment and culture rose 4.49%, while pharmaceuticals gained 3.74%, food, beverages and tobacco 3.72%, IT services 2.7%, electricity and gas 2.41%, and telecommunications 1.99%.

Movements were also mixed among the largest companies by market capitalization. Samsung Electronics and SK hynix fell 6.65% and 9.03%, respectively, while SK Square declined 8.79%, LG Energy Solution 2.25%, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics 11.39%. By contrast, Samsung Biologics gained 1.94%, while Hyundai Motor rose 2.65%, KB Financial Group 4.16%, Celltrion 6.25%, and Shinhan Financial Group 2.9%.

The KOSDAQ index was also down more than 4%. At the same time, it was trading at 682.73, down 4.5% from the previous day. By investor type, foreign investors were net sellers of 136.8 billion won, while institutions and individual investors were net buyers of 15.2 billion won and 119.3 billion won, respectively.

Most of the largest companies by market capitalization were weaker. EcoPro and EcoPro BM fell 7.93% and 9.57%, respectively, while Jusung Engineering declined 12.21%, Rainbow Robotics 5.76%, HLB 1.64%, Sam Chun Dang Pharm 2.16%, SIMMTECH 16.1%, EO Technics 13.22%, and LEENO Industrial 7.91%. By contrast, Alteogen rose 4.66%.

Meanwhile, in the Seoul foreign exchange market, the won was trading at 1,338.7 per U.S. dollar, up 2.3 won from the previous day.

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