The Kospi opened higher today (the 29th), bouncing back from the previous day's sharp plunge, but has been narrowing its gains during the trading session.

As of 9:36 a.m. today, the Kospi stood at 6,049.90, up 26.24 points (0.44%) from the previous session.

The index started the session at 6,089.11, up 65.45 points (1.09%) from the previous close, but has seen its upward momentum taper off.

After briefly recovering to 6,228.52 (3.40%) in early trading, it gave up its gains and temporarily dipped into negative territory.

While foreign investors had maintained a selling streak for three consecutive sessions up until the previous day, they turned to net buyers today.

Currently, foreign investors are net buyers of 317.8 billion won on the main bourse.

Institutional investors are also supporting the index with a net purchase of 706.5 billion won.

Meanwhile, retail investors shifted to net sellers, standing alone with a net selling advantage of 1.0388 trillion won.

Following the sharp 13% to 14% plunge in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in the domestic market the previous day, the weakness in semiconductor stocks continued on Wall Street overnight.

Consequently, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index closed down 0.22% from the previous session.

Semiconductor-related stocks plummeted, including Micron (-8.85%), AMD (-8.15%), Intel (-5.86%), Qualcomm (-4.21%), and Western Digital (-6.91%).

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 4.49% on the day, extending its losing streak to four consecutive sessions, while SK Hynix ADRs also fell 8.98%.

SK Hynix ADRs, which have tumbled for three straight sessions, are now down about 13% compared to their initial public offering (IPO) price of $149.

However, as investor sentiment improved somewhat due to falling international oil prices, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 rose 1.03% and 0.21%, respectively.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 4.06% from the previous session to close at $79.26 per barrel, falling below the $80 mark, while Brent crude futures dropped 4.83% to finish at $84.09 per barrel.

However, WTI has currently rebounded by around 3%, moving back above the $80 threshold.

Market analysts interpret the domestic market's rebound today as being driven by bargain hunting following the previous day's steep decline.

At the same time, investor reactions appeared mixed regarding SK Hynix's second-quarter earnings, which were released before the market opened.

SK Hynix announced in a regulatory filing that its operating profit for the second quarter of this year was tentatively tallied at 60.5426 trillion won, a 557.2% increase compared to the same period last year.

This figure fell 4.7% short of the market consensus of 63.5526 trillion won compiled by Yonhap Infomax.

During the same period, revenue came in at 79.3187 trillion won, up 256.8% year-over-year.

SK Hynix projected that memory demand growth will persist as big tech companies expand their investments in AI infrastructure, leading to continuous additional supply requests supported by revenues generated from AI services.

Based on this demand outlook, the company stated that it has concluded long-term supply agreement (LTA) negotiations with about 10 customers and is continuing further discussions with major clients.

Shares of SK Hynix are currently trading up 0.19% at 1.553 million won.

After starting 1% higher, the stock turned downward during the session, sinking by as much as 1.74%.

Samsung Electronics is trading up 3.64% at 228,000 won.

Among other large-cap stocks, SK Square (4.11%), Samsung Electro-Mechanics (3.86%), Hyundai Motor (4.81%), and LG Energy Solution (0.32%) are advancing, while Samsung Biologics (-2.07%), Shinhan Financial Group (-0.20%), and Hanwha Aerospace (-1.49%) are declining.

By sector, electrical and electronics (3.36%), manufacturing (2.73%), and food and beverage & tobacco (2.33%) posted significant gains, whereas telecommunications (-0.52%) and real estate (-0.04%) edged down.

At the same time, the Kosdaq index stood at 697.36, down 8.49 points (1.20%).

The index opened at 713.71, up 7.86 points (1.11%), but later turned downward and is currently hovering below the 700 mark.

In the Kosdaq market, foreign and institutional investors posted net selling advantages of 39.3 billion won and 39.8 billion won, respectively.

Retail investors were sole net buyers, purchasing 76.2 billion won.

Alteogen (-0.34%), EcoPro BM (-0.20%), HLB (-1.15%), and ABL Bio (-1.02%) traded on the weak side, while EcoPro (1.51%), Rainbow Robotics (7.37%), Jusung Engineering (2.17%), and Leeno Industrial (1.30%) registered gains.

(Photo: Yonhap News)