KOSPI Decreased by 15P

KOSPI slipped to the 600 point in a hundred days. KOSDAQ was closed to the lowest point (43.67) in the history of a market.

It is because foreign investors purchased securities for 97.6 billion won in the exchange owing to a rally of US stock price but they sold 6298 contracts for futures. And individual investors sold securities for 65.4 billion won. It is a main cause of the sudden decrease of stock price.

The KOSPI of January 24 ended down to 609.43 point decreased by 15.75 point(2.52%) over the previous day. It is the lowest level after October 11, 2002 (587.51). In the beginning, it was raised to 629.79 point but was off to 604.74 point due to the future sell of foreign investors and offerings of individual investors.

KOSDAQ ended down to 44.26 point decreased by 1.52 point(3.32%). It was the lowest level after October 11, 2002 (43.67).

SK Telecom announced the stock purchase publicly but its stock price was off to 178,000 won decreased by 4.04%. It was the lowest level one year and nine months after April 10, 2001 (171,500 won). Jeong Tae-Uk, representative director of Hyundai Securities said, “Because the US –Iraq war is near at hand and there is an uncertainty on a nuclear problem of the North Korea and policies of new government, the stock price slipped down.” Ham Chun-Seung, executive director of Salomon Smith Barney (SSB) analyzed, “It is forecasted that a growth rate of income of main Korean issues such as Samsung Electronics and SK Telecom will be raised. As foreign investors have a lot of Korean securities and individuals sell securities, the falling tendency of the stock price will be continued.” Bak Man-Sun, director of Mirae Asset Securities said, “KOSPI may drop to 580 point but it will be raised by over 20% at rally. When most of unfavorable factors are influenced and so the stock price decreases, it is time to review an installment purchase of blue chip.”

Chan-Sun Hong hcs@donga.com