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MARKET BRIEFING · KOREA

In a rebound that undid a 3% opening plunge within a day, semiconductors alone were left behind.

October 19, 2026 · Read the Korean original

Major indices

  • KOSPI 5,768.01 +1.76%
  • KOSDAQ 808.89 +1.78%

Taken only from the index this was a second straight day of gains, but the character of the session was the resilience that undid an opening drop of more than 3% within a single day. The KOSPI closed 1.76% higher at 5,768.01 and the KOSDAQ 1.78% higher at 808.89, with 694 KOSPI stocks advancing against 193 declining and the KOSDAQ even wider at 1,256 advancing and 390 declining. Even so, across the KOSPI and KOSDAQ only 2 stocks set 252-session highs while 16 set new lows, so this broad rebound has not yet turned the trend around.

What pulled the market up was EV batteries, materials and heavy industry, and the one place left behind was semiconductors. All 13 EV battery names in the sample rose for an average gain of 9.61%, which Korea Economic Daily and Seoul Economic Daily attributed to expectations of indirect benefit from tighter United States rules on Chinese batteries and news that a Chinese energy storage maker is withdrawing from the American market. Among large caps Samsung SDI rose 11.70%, and on the materials side Lotte Energy Materials jumped 18.42%. Semiconductors had only 14 of 43 names higher and the group fell 0.95% on average. Industry and stock-level moves are laid out below under Movers by industry.

The won and interest rates pointed in different directions. The won strengthened as the won-dollar rate fell 6.1 won from the previous session to 1,342.4, while the 3-year government bond yield rose 2.3bp to 3.877% and the 10-year rose 2.3bp to 4.205%. Market cash is still standing on the side of reducing risk: as of October 15 investor deposits were 96.9121 trillion won, down 3.4675 trillion won from five sessions earlier, while margin trading credit balances fell 955.8 billion won, or 2.84%, to 32.7499 trillion won. The lift in the index came instead from flows, with non-arbitrage program buying on the KOSPI at a net 644.7 billion won. Korea's weight in the MSCI Emerging Markets index was 18.44% as of October 16, down 2.29 percentage points in a week and 6.15 percentage points below its June 19 peak.

The sharp opening drop came from credit worries around artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States. Hankook Ilbo and ChosunBiz reported that yields on CoreWeave's corporate bonds passing 15% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index falling for eight straight sessions weighed on sentiment before the open, and in Korea that shock showed up not across the whole index but gathered in semiconductors alone. Money left that seat and moved into batteries. KODEX Solid-State Battery ESS TOP2 Plus gained 9.37% in a day as EV battery products filled the top of the ETF gainers, and while semiconductors remain the leading industry on relative strength, its representative name STI fell 2.60%, so the industry score and the day's price went separate ways.

To separate what is what: index levels, advance and decline counts, industry and standout-stock moves, and the macro and flow indicators are all collected and calculated by this site. The United States restrictions and the Chinese withdrawal cited behind the EV battery surge rest on press reports, so the size of their effect does not appear to be settled. Investor deposits and margin credit balances are reported with a lag and are as of October 15, and the MSCI weights are as of October 16. We did not find grounds in individual company disclosures to explain why semiconductors alone were weak.

Watchlist stocks by industry

EV batteries +9.61% · 13 of 13 up

Steel & metals +4.34% · 14 of 14 up

Robotics & automation +4.31% · 4 of 5 up

Defense +3.89% · 11 of 13 up

Bio & healthcare +3.37% · 27 of 34 up

Semiconductors -0.95% · 14 of 43 up

Sources (Korean-language)

This market briefing was compiled by AI from this site's own price and filing data together with public news reports, and translated from the Korean original. Please check the sources below before relying on it.

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