The KOSPI turned upward after a weak start, showing a "weak start, strong finish" pattern for the second consecutive day.

Today (the 26th), the KOSPI closed up 65.47 points (0.97%) at 6,808.21 compared to the previous day.

The index opened slightly lower, down 15.49 points (0.23%) at 6,727.25, before shifting to an upward trend.

Amid fluctuations driven by caution ahead of Nvidia's earnings announcement scheduled for the following day, the index expanded its gains starting around 11:00 AM, led by large-cap semiconductor stocks.

The KOSPI once climbed as high as 6,887.18 (+2.14%) but closed after giving up a portion of those gains.

As of 3:30 PM today, the won-dollar exchange rate in the Seoul foreign exchange market stood at 1,384.8 won, down 1.3 won from the previous day's base rate.

Foreign investors extended their net selling in the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) market for the fourth consecutive trading session.

Although they briefly turned to net buying during the intraday session, foreign investors ended up as net sellers of 105.1 billion won by the market close.

Retail investors also turned to selling after three trading sessions, recording a net sale of 2.2468 trillion won.

Institutional investors supported the index with 764.8 billion won in net buying.

Other corporations also posted 1.5981 trillion won in net buying.

Recently, other corporations have emerged as a major supply-and-demand player with trillion-won scale net buying, driven by Samsung Electronics' treasury stock purchases for employee stock compensation and SK Hynix's purchases for treasury stock cancellation.

Domestic semiconductor "two-tops" fluctuated between gains and losses during the session before ultimately closing strong.

Samsung Electronics finished trading up 1.75% at 261,500 won.

The stock opened slightly lower but later turned upward, briefly surging up to 266,500 won (+3.70%).

SK Hynix stood at 1,688,000 won, up 0.60%.

Similarly, it opened down 0.60% but changed direction, briefly jumping to 1,735,000 won (+3.40%).

Among other large-cap stocks by market capitalization, LG Energy Solution (0.43%), KB Financial Group (0.12%), and Doosan Enerbility (6.32%) rose, while SK Square (-0.19%), Samsung Electro-Mechanics (-2.35%), and Hyundai Motor (-3.09%) declined.

As expectations for unprecedented shareholder returns from Samsung Electronics were highlighted, shares of companies holding stakes in Samsung Electronics, such as Samsung C&T (5.59%), Samsung Life Insurance (8.60%), and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance (4.94%), surged together.

Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) jumped 6.42% on news that the U.S. government proposed that South Korea jointly acquire a stake in nuclear power company Westinghouse Electric Company (WEC).

Meanwhile, SK Innovation plunged 11.04% amid news of its absorption merger with its separator business subsidiary, SK IE Technology (SKIET), as concerns over SKIET's sluggish earnings and financial burdens were highlighted.

By sector, insurance (5.88%), construction (5.68%), and electricity and gas (5.06%) showed strong performance.

Transportation and warehousing (-2.66%), transportation equipment and parts (-1.87%), and metals (-1.85%) sectors declined.

In the KOSPI market today, advancing stocks were tallied at 572.

Declining stocks numbered 302, while 33 remained unchanged.

Meanwhile, the KOSDAQ index closed down 0.28 points (0.03%) at 826.87.

The index opened down 2.38 points (0.29%) at 824.77, searched for direction, and ultimately closed slightly lower.

In the KOSDAQ market, foreign and institutional investors were net sellers of 91.1 billion won and 105.1 billion won, respectively, while retail investors recorded 192.8 billion won in net buying.

Ecopro BM (-0.89%), Rainbow Robotics (-0.88%), and Jusung Engineering (-3.02%) fell, while Alteogen (1.96%), Ecopro (2.11%), and PharmaResearch (6.63%) closed higher.

Declining KOSDAQ stocks totaled 758, and advancing KOSDAQ stocks totaled 881.

Unchanged stocks numbered 87.

Trading values for the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets today were recorded at 22.8934 trillion won and 4.4388 trillion won, respectively.

Looking at trading volume, the total number of shares traded in the KOSPI market today was 327 million, which is less than half of this year's daily average trading volume (701 million shares).

Total trading value for the pre-market and main market of the alternative trading system Nextrade stood at 11.2126 trillion won.

(Photo: Yonhap News)