KOSPI logs 7th straight weekly fall as AI trade wobbles
KOSPI falls 0.6% Friday, capping a 5% weekly drop — the longest losing streak since Dec 2022 — as AI-chip worries and foreign selling persist.
South Korea's benchmark KOSPI index closed lower on Friday, sealing a seventh consecutive weekly decline — the longest such stretch since December 2022 — as persistent anxiety over the artificial-intelligence trade and volatile chip stocks kept investors on edge.
The index swung wildly during the session, jumping nearly 2% in early trading before reversing to fall as much as 2.2%, before settling 0.6% lower at 6,258.77. For the week, the index shed more than 5%.
The recent turbulence follows a period of record leveraged trading and heavy foreign outflows. Although the KOSPI remains about 48% higher for the year, it has dropped 31% from its record close on June 22. New curbs on debt-funded products have helped reduce volumes and temper some swings, but the market remains sensitive to shifting expectations around AI-linked stocks.
"The Korean market is still searching for equilibrium after an extraordinary period of volatility," said Jung In Yun, CEO at Fibonacci Asset Management Global in Singapore.
Foreign investors sold a net 859.0 billion won ($605.96 million) worth of local shares on Friday, extending year-to-date outflows to roughly $116 billion, according to exchange data.
Among individual stocks, AI memory chipmaker Samsung Electronics edged higher, while rival SK Hynix tumbled 4.9%, bringing its weekly loss to 13% — its steepest since mid-July. Hyundai Motor fell 1.1%, while Kia Corp rose 1%. POSCO Holdings climbed 3.8% and Samsung BioLogics gained 2.8%.
The South Korean won strengthened to 1,418.8 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, putting it on track for a sixth consecutive weekly gain. Investor positioning on the won has turned bullish for the first time in over 10 months, supported by intervention and repatriation of proceeds from SK Hynix's ADR launch in the United States.
Oil prices extended gains on concerns over access to the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran reviewed a preliminary bill that would bar U.S., Israeli and other "hostile" vessels from transiting the strait.