KOSPI closes at 5,550.30 after opening 2.36% lower

Seoul’s cash session is over. This dispatch was filed Saturday 24 October and uses Yonhap’s Friday close, not a futures estimate and not the still-open US session.

The index#

Yonhap reported that the KOSPI rose 16.53 points, or 0.3%, to 5,550.30. The story ran at 15:36 Seoul time on 23 October, and Yonhap’s closing flash carried the same level. The index opened 2.36% lower. Individuals, net sellers early, turned to net buyers. The previous session had fallen more than 3%, which is the drop Friday’s bargain-hunting story was answering.

A 0.3% rise after a 2.36% lower open is a round trip of roughly two and a half percentage points inside one session. That is the fact. Calling the day “calm” because the close was green drops the open.

The two chip names Yonhap printed#

Yonhap said Samsung Electronics rose 0.47% to 215,500 won. SK hynix rose 4.42% to 1.28 million won after opening lower. The newsroom’s frame was bargain hunting in major chip stocks, with concern about AI-supply-chain investment still in the background.

The overnight US lead, as Yonhap summarised it, was a mixed close: the Dow up 0.02%, the S&P 500 down 1.21% and the Nasdaq down 2.6%. Yonhap also reported Micron down 6.26%, Nvidia down 4.4% and Intel down 8.04% in that US session. Those percentages are Yonhap’s account of Thursday in New York, which lines up with Reuters on the Nasdaq’s 2.6% drop and differs in the decimal it gives Nvidia. This dispatch uses Yonhap’s figures for the Seoul story and does not average them with the Reuters decimals.

SK hynix finishing up 4.42% after that overnight tape is the local divergence. It does not say the AI spending question is over. Yonhap’s own copy kept that concern in the second sentence of the story.

The won, and what this dispatch will not borrow#

The won was quoted at 1,324.6 per dollar as of 3:30 p.m., up 0.4 won from the previous stock-session close, Yonhap said. A firmer won and a higher chip close can sit together. One afternoon does not make a regime.

US indexes on Friday were still trading when the later New York live blogs were updated. They are not part of Seoul’s close and they are not used here as if they were. Oil quotes were disagreeing across wires on Friday afternoon. They are not a Korean closing input either.

The completed Asia print is the one in the table: KOSPI 5,550.30, Samsung 215,500 won, SK hynix 1.28 million won, won 1,324.6. Monday’s open is not in that table.

Informational dispatch. Not a recommendation on Korean equities or the won.