South Korea’s Kospi turned lower on Thursday despite Samsung Electronics posting a record quarterly operating profit, with foreign selling weighing on the market, Chosunbiz reported.
The Kospi opened at 6,808.68 points, up 4.78 points or 0.07% from the previous session, but had fallen 0.49% by 9:12am as early gains faded.
Retail investors were net buyers of about 318 billion won on the Korea Exchange, while foreigners sold around 262 billion won and institutions offloaded about 80 billion won.
Samsung Electronics initially jumped more than 1.8% in premarket trading after reporting third-quarter operating profit of 107.4 trillion won, up 782.5% from a year earlier and slightly above the market consensus of 106 trillion won.
Revenue rose 126.6% year on year to 195 trillion won. The result marked the first time a South Korean company recorded quarterly operating profit above 100 trillion won.
However, Samsung shares were down 0.47% from the previous session during regular trading, while SK hynix gained 0.46%.
Kiwoom Securities researcher Han Ji-young said the market was likely to remain volatile as investors digested Samsung’s preliminary results alongside holiday and options expiry-related flows.
“Today, despite upside factors such as an intraday easing of the surge in the U.S. 10-year yield and a narrowing of losses in U.S. stocks, the market is likely to show volatility as it digests Samsung Electronics’ preliminary results, the holiday, and options expiration-related flow issues,” she said.
Han added that investors should focus on changes in Samsung’s share price and foreign flows following the results, as well as revisions to 2027 earnings estimates, rather than simply whether the company exceeded market expectations.
Overnight, all three major US stock indexes closed lower as Treasury yields climbed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.66% to 51,179.87, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.22% to 7,801.77 and the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.22% to 27,538.69.
The US 10-year Treasury yield rose as high as 5.365%, its highest since April 2002, while the 30-year yield reached 5.732%, its highest since May 2002. Yields later pared gains after a 10-year Treasury auction drew stronger-than-expected demand.
The KOSDAQ also opened lower at 898.19 points, down 0.03%, with losses extending beyond 1% early in the session. Market capitalisation leader Alteogen fell 8.17%.
Among semiconductor materials, parts and equipment stocks, Jusung Engineering gained 1.62%, Wonik IPS rose 0.76% and LEENO Industrial edged up 0.12%.
