This week in review
A window on where the market moved over the week
KOSPI -1.79% · KOSDAQ +4.55% for the week — one Monday decline split the five days
Down -3.12% on Monday, then four sessions of recovery — and KOSPI still ended the week lower
KOSPI fell -3.12% on Monday, then rose three sessions running — +0.68% on Tuesday, +0.97% on Wednesday and +1.53% on Thursday — before falling -1.79% on Friday.KOSDAQ ran differently: up +1.42% on Monday and +1.70% on Tuesday, down -0.03% on Wednesday, then +1.30% on Thursday and +0.09% on Friday — four of five sessions higher.Monday alone set the KOSPI’s week. The gains of the four sessions that followed did not add up to that one decline, and the week closed at -1.79%.That the two indices looked in different directions all week is the other shape of it — KOSPI ended negative while KOSDAQ ended +4.55%.
The week in numbers
A window measuring the week’s change, its range and where it sits within the year
KOSPI’s weekly -1.79% ranks 11th from the bottom among this year’s 34 weeks
| Item | KOSPI | KOSDAQ | Rank this year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly change | −1.79% | +4.55% | KOSPI: rank 24 of 34 weeks |
| Weekly high–low range | +9.16% | +7.54% | KOSPI: rank 22 of 35 weeks |
| Friday close | 6,788.88 | 838.41 | — |
Weekly flows — who bought and who sold
A window on how much foreign investors, retail investors, investment firms and pension funds each bought and sold over the week
Foreign investors sold a net -KRW 8,317.1bn for the week — the largest of the four groups
| Day | KOSPI | Foreign investors | Retail investors | Investment firms | Pension funds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon (08.24) | −3.12% | −₩3.67tn | +₩3.32tn | −₩689.5bn | +₩4.4bn |
| Tue (08.25) | +0.68% | −₩3.81tn | +₩1.05tn | +₩1.13tn | +₩23.4bn |
| Wed (08.26) | +0.97% | −₩114.8bn | −₩2.25tn | +₩770.6bn | −₩33.9bn |
| Thu (08.27) | +1.53% | +₩133.3bn | −₩1.91tn | +₩287.0bn | −₩142.9bn |
| Fri (08.28) | −1.79% | −₩852.5bn | +₩419.4bn | −₩1.21tn | −₩22.9bn |
| Weekly total | −1.79% | −₩8.32tn | +₩634.3bn | +₩291.7bn | −₩171.9bn |
For the week, foreign investors sold a net -KRW 8,317.1bn, investment firms -KRW 312.1bn and pension funds -KRW 171.9bn, while retail investors bought +KRW 634.3bn.Foreign selling was front-loaded — most of the week’s total came on Monday at -KRW 3,669.1bn and Tuesday at -KRW 3,814.0bn, easing to -KRW 114.8bn on Wednesday and -KRW 852.5bn on Friday, with buying of +KRW 133.3bn on Thursday.Retail ran the other way — buying +KRW 3,321.7bn on Monday and +KRW 1,050.9bn on Tuesday, selling -KRW 2,246.1bn on Wednesday and -KRW 1,911.6bn on Thursday, then buying +KRW 419.4bn again on Friday.
What each group bought and sold
A window on the stock each group bought most and sold most that week
Foreign investors bought Samsung Electro-Mechanics while retail sold it — same name, opposite sides
| Investor group | Bought most | Sold most |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign investors | Samsung Electro-Mechanics+₩378.5bn | SK hynix−₩5.42tn |
| Retail investors | Samsung Electronics+₩1.87tn | Samsung Electro-Mechanics−₩550.3bn |
| Investment firms | Samsung Electro-Mechanics+₩199.7bn | Samsung Electronics−₩689.3bn |
| Pension funds | Samsung SDI+₩146.8bn | Samsung Electronics−₩282.7bn |
Looking at what each group bought and sold, one name splits them squarely. Foreign investors bought the most of Samsung Electro-Mechanics at +KRW 374.9bn, while retail investors sold the most of that same name at -KRW 550.3bn.In the large semiconductor names it runs the other way — foreign investors sold SK hynix -KRW 5,420.8bn and Samsung Electronics -KRW 2,522.0bn, while retail bought Samsung Electronics +KRW 1,874.2bn, Samsung Electronics preferred +KRW 988.8bn and SK hynix +KRW 634.5bn.Pension funds bought Samsung SDI +KRW 146.8bn, NAVER +KRW 95.6bn and Doosan Enerbility +KRW 90.7bn while selling Samsung Electronics -KRW 282.7bn and Hyundai Mobis -KRW 145.6bn. Investment firms bought Samsung Electro-Mechanics +KRW 199.7bn and Doosan Enerbility +KRW 182.1bn while selling Samsung Electronics -KRW 689.3bn.These figures are compiled from a set of names tracked by turnover, not from every listed stock.
The week’s events
A window on what moved the market over the week and what followed, in order
Monday stacked regulatory and acquisition news; Thursday was the day Nvidia reported
| Day | Layer | Event | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | Policy | DS Investment & Securities: “Samsung Electronics could retire KRW 10–20tn of treasury shares under the 10% financial holding rule” | KOSPI −3.12% |
| Mon | Industry | Hugging Face, the AI platform once breached via GPT, is up for sale at KRW 18tn | KOSPI −3.12% |
| Tue | Industry | Large firms excluding Samsung Electronics and SK hynix: operating profit up 72%, mid-to-long-term capex down 11% | KOSPI +0.68% |
| Tue | Policy | Trump administration: “USD 140m fee on professional visas to generate KRW 12tn in revenue” (2nd roundup) | KOSPI +0.68% |
| Wed | Macro | Canada hits the US with USD 20bn in retaliatory tariffs — 15–50% on 700 items | KOSPI +0.97% |
| Wed | Industry | New York stocks close broadly higher on semiconductor strength and falling Treasury yields | KOSPI +0.97% |
| Thu | Earnings | Nvidia posts quarterly revenue of KRW 133tn, up 106% year on year | KOSPI +1.53% |
| Thu | Earnings | Nvidia posts quarterly revenue of USD 96.2bn — a record for the 13th straight quarter | KOSPI +1.53% |
| Fri | Industry | Samsung Biologics raises KRW 3tn in a rights offering for the Polypeptide acquisition and facility investment | KOSPI −1.79% |
| Fri | Industry | SK hynix breaks ground on its Indiana fab in the US — hundreds of thousands of wafers a year of 7th-generation HBM (2nd roundup) | KOSPI −1.79% |
Wall Street scoreboard — weekly summary
A window grading, cumulatively, whether the stance of US investment bank reports matched reality three days later
Wall Street reports: 14 of 26 correct in the cumulative record — 54%
Silmari scores whether a name or index moved in line with an investment bank report’s stance three trading days after it was published.0 new foreign investment bank reports were detected this week — the sample is still building, so some weeks have none, and an empty week is not filled in.The cumulative record stands at 14 of 26 correct, or 54%. That is not far from a coin flip, and since the set was gathered retroactively it may carry collection bias.
| Institutions | Report | Actual | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bernstein (06.22) | Samsung Electronics—Bernstein raises targets for Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron…”Rising memory prices ease AI cost pressures” (Positive) | +1.41% | ✓ |
| Nomura (06.24) | Samsung Electronics—Nomura “590K→670K”…Samsung target raised again (Positive) | −5.14% | ✗ |
| JPMorgan (06.25) | KOSPI—JPMorgan raises 12-month target to 12,500…”Maximize Korean equity weight” (Positive) | −5.08% | ✗ |
| Morgan Stanley (07.13) | SK Hynix—Semiconductor overbought warning (memory winter precedent) (Negative) | −0.16% | ✓ |
| Barclays (07.23) | SK Hynix—Target price $330 (117% upside) (Positive) | −19.23% | ✗ |
The week’s lesson
A window for what to carry past the end of the week
What the week leaves — the weight of one day, two indices apart, flows that reversed
This was a week in which one large session set the record, the two indices looked in different directions, and flows by group reversed midweek.That makes it poor material for a one-line forecast of the week ahead — direction changed several times within this week alone. What to make of it is each reader’s own call.