12:00verdict at this hour
KOSPI Surges 6.33% as Chips Rebound; Morning High Near 6,900
The KOSPI closed Thursday, August 20 (2026) at 6,880.81, up 6.33% on the day, as SK hynix and Samsung Electronics led a broad semiconductor recovery after Wednesday’s 5.80% selloff.The morning session saw the index dip to an intraday low of 6,600.09 at 09:08 before rallying to a high of 6,902.46 at 11:08, with foreigners Net PurchaseThe difference between a given investor group’s total purchases and total sales over a period; a positive figure means they bought more than they sold.It is the standard measure used to track whether foreigners, institutions, or retail investors are putting money into or pulling money out of the market on any given day. ₩784.9bn and National Pension Service and other public pension fundsState-sponsored institutional funds that pool retirement contributions; in Korea the term most often refers to the National Pension Service (NPS), the dominant domestic long-term institutional buyer.Pension funds tend to act as a counter-cyclical stabilizer — buying into weakness — so their net purchase figure is watched as a floor signal on sharp down days. adding ₩106.0bn on KOSPI (today’s figures are preliminary, collected before 19:00).
12:00Snapshot
A window that records the market at that hour, like a photograph
KOSPI Closes at 6,880.81 (+6.33%); Foreigners Net Buy ₩784.9bn on KOSPI as Chips Recover
Top by trading value10— snapshot
A window on how the top trading-value names have moved up to this hour
SK hynix and Samsung Electronics Lead KOSPI Volume; Chip Names Hit Morning Highs Around 10:51–11:08
By the 11:52 snapshot, SK hynix had printed its intraday high of ₩1,700,000 at 10:51 and pulled back to ₩1,674,000, while Samsung Electronics reached ₩273,000 at 11:07 before settling near ₩268,500; both stocks dominated KOSPI turnover at ₩44,042bn and ₩35,254bn respectively through the morning.The KOSPI index itself hit its morning high of 6,902.46 at 11:08 and subsequently drifted lower toward the 6,830–6,855 range into the midday break, consistent with the typical lunch-hour drift pattern; the KOSDAQ, having peaked at 850.77 early at 09:04, traded in a tighter range near 838–840 by 11:52.
| Stock | Prior close | Open | Gap | High (time) | 12:00 Current Price | Change | Low (time) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SK hynix | 1,500,000 | 1,613,000 | +7.53% | 1,700,000 (10:51) | 1,672,000 (12:00) | +11.47% | 1,576,000 (09:08) |
| Samsung Electronics | 247,500 | 257,000 | +3.84% | 273,000 (11:07) | 268,000 (12:00) | +8.28% | 252,500 (09:07) |
| Samsung Electro-Mechanics | 1,387,000 | 1,401,000 | +1.01% | 1,421,000 (10:03) | 1,378,000 (12:00) | −0.65% | 1,335,000 (09:03) |
| SK Square | 1,004,000 | 1,082,000 | +7.77% | 1,102,000 (11:08) | 1,091,000 (12:00) | +8.67% | 1,029,000 (09:07) |
| Samsung Electronics (Pref.) | 173,700 | 180,000 | +3.63% | 191,700 (11:09) | 189,600 (12:00) | +9.15% | 176,700 (09:08) |
| SK eternix | 57,800 | 58,800 | +1.73% | 63,700 (09:43) | 56,800 (12:00) | −1.73% | 56,500 (11:51) |
| Kumho E&C | 12,600 | 13,040 | +3.49% | 15,980 (11:42) | 15,700 (12:00) | +24.60% | 12,430 (09:12) |
| Hanwha Aerospace | 1,177,000 | 1,190,000 | +1.10% | 1,200,000 (11:32) | 1,192,500 (12:00) | +1.32% | 1,136,000 (10:02) |
| NAVER | 208,000 | 210,500 | +1.20% | 223,500 (10:12) | 219,500 (12:00) | +5.53% | 209,500 (09:02) |
| Samsung SDI | 487,000 | 493,000 | +1.23% | 515,000 (10:24) | 509,000 (12:00) | +4.52% | 493,500 (09:02) |
Among the day’s notable intraday paths, Kumho Engineering & Construction opened at ₩12,950, reached its low of ₩12,430 at 09:12, and was trading near its morning high of ₩15,750 around 11:42 — a wide intraday range.Hanwha Aerospace, by contrast, opened at its high of ₩1,203,000 at 09:00 and dipped to a low of ₩1,136,000 at 10:02 before recovering to ₩1,192,000 — an open-to-low reversal pattern distinct from the broad chip-rebound narrative.
Gainers5· Decliners5— snapshot
A window on the biggest gainers and decliners, and the reasons behind them
Semiconductors surge on reversal trade as KOSPI closes up +6.33% at 6,880.81, while financials and energy lag.
On KOSPI, the top gainers by price move included Kumho Electric (+29.97%), SK Securities (+29.79%), Kumho Engineering & Construction (+24.76%), SK hynix (+12.60%), and Samsung Electronics preferred (+9.67%); on the downside, DN Automotive fell −13.12%, and KB Financial −2.76% (all figures filtered for turnover above ₩10bn).On KOSDAQ, Alteogen surged +10.54% with ₩243.0bn in turnover, while Kolon TissueGene fell −14.86% on ₩141.1bn; HLB eased −2.97%, and the KOSDAQ’s breadth (Advance-Decline RatioThe ratio of advancing stocks to declining stocks in a market on a given day; values below 1.0 indicate more decliners than advancers.A low ADR even on a rising index day signals that gains are concentrated in a handful of large-caps rather than being broad-based — an important caveat when reading index-level moves.) reading for the prior session (August 19) was 0.31, with 396 advancers against 1,275 decliners out of 1,821 stocks — today’s breadth data are not yet collected.