{"id":770,"date":"2026-05-12T08:50:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T08:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/?p=770"},"modified":"2026-05-12T08:50:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T08:50:05","slug":"south-koreas-kospi-falls-sharply-on-profit-taking-near-8000-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/?p=770","title":{"rendered":"South Korea’s KOSPI falls sharply on profit-taking near 8,000 level"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEOUL: South Korea\u2019s KOSPI stock benchmark<\/a> pulled back sharply after hitting an all-time high just below the 8,000 level on Tuesday, as investors took uncertainty over the Middle East conflict as a cue to book profits.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The KOSPI closed 2.3% lower at 7,643.15. Earlier in the session, it rose 2.3% to a record high of 7,999.67 but suddenly reversed course to fall as much as 5.1% intra-day.<\/p>\n

Chipmaker Samsung Electronics fell 2.3% and peer SK Hynix skidded 2.4%. Earlier in the session, Samsung and SK Hynix gained 2.1% and 4.6%, respectively, to notch record levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cExternal uncertainty triggered underlying profit-taking pressure to explode. While there is little significance to the figure of 8,000 itself, it is up 60% from 5,000 in late March, which is not common,\u201d said Huh Jae-hwan, an analyst at Eugene Investment Securities.<\/p>\n

The index rose 4.3% on Monday, reaching near 8,000 levels in less than a week after it breached 7,000, led by strong buyingby retail investors. This prompted authorities to issue a rare warning against taking too much risk on Monday.<\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump said that a ceasefire with Iran was \u201con life support\u201d after Tehran\u2019s response to a U.S. proposal to end the war made clear the two sides were still far apart on a number of issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe recent rally had been concentrated too much on the semiconductor sector,\u201d said Han Ji-young, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities.<\/p>\n

The KOSPI has risen 16% this month, bringing its year-to-date gains to over 80%. In the entirety of 2025, it rose 76%, the biggest annual gain since 1999, emerging as the world\u2019s best performer in an artificial intelligence-driven rally.<\/p>\n

Presidential policy adviser Kim Yong-beom floated an idea of \u201ccitizen dividends\u201d, as he argued in a social media postthat excess earnings in the era of AI should be redistributed to all citizens and South Korea could be the first country to make that happen.<\/p>\n

Foreign investors were net sellers of shares worth 5.6 trillion won ($3.76 billion)on Tuesday, while retail investors bought 6.7 trillion won.<\/p>\n

Most other index heavyweights also fell sharply. Of the total 899 traded issues, 146 shares advanced, while 733 declined.<\/p>\n

The won was quoted 1.1% lower at 1,489.0 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, hitting its weakest level since April 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SEOUL: South Korea\u2019s KOSPI stock benchmark pulled back sharply after hitting an all-time high just below the 8,000 level on Tuesday, as investors took uncertainty over the Middle East conflict as a cue to book profits. The KOSPI closed 2.3% lower at 7,643.15. Earlier in the session, it rose 2.3% to a record high of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}