MONEY RADAR
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MARKET BRIEFING · KOREA

On a day when all 43 semiconductor names fell, 879 stocks still closed higher.

November 5, 2026 · Read the Korean original

Major indices

  • KOSPI 5,383.80 -5.28%
  • KOSDAQ 678.41 -5.11%

Judged by the indices alone this looked like a rout, but what broke was not the whole market so much as the single AI and semiconductor axis. The KOSPI closed 5.28% lower at 5,383.80 and the KOSDAQ 5.11% lower at 678.41, with sell sidecars triggered in both markets, and yet 879 stocks still rose against 1,698 that fell. On the KOSPI alone 374 advanced and 514 declined, a far more divided tape than a 5% drop would suggest. Forty-nine stocks hit 252-session lows and four hit highs.

The source of that division is unambiguous. Not one of the 43 semiconductor names in our tally managed a gain, and power grid, hydrogen, defense and EV batteries all fell more than 7% on average, so every industry tied to AI capital spending and heavy equipment gave way at once. On the other side, 18 of 19 entertainment names and all 12 cosmetics names advanced as money moved toward domestic demand and content, while in bio SK biopharmaceuticals jumped more than 12% after posting its highest quarterly operating profit on record. Industry moves and individual names are set out in the sector table below.

Where the money leaving equities went is visible in bonds and precious metals. The 10-year government bond yield fell 8.1bp to 3.887%, its lowest in half a year, and the three-year fell 4.5bp to 3.669%, while gold rose 2.49% to 4,122.60 dollars an ounce and silver 2.65% to 52.95 dollars. The won barely moved at 1,340.70 per dollar, so the currency was not where this shock began. Market funding was already thin: as of November 3 investor deposits were down 2.2216 trillion won at 88.2413 trillion won and credit financing down 265.8 billion won at 28.9502 trillion won. KOSPI non-arbitrage program trades were net sellers of 1.9588 trillion won.

The trigger was the US midterm elections. Yonhap News TV and Financial News reported that Democratic candidates who had campaigned on data center regulation won governorships in states including Texas and Georgia, spreading concern that slower construction would also mean smaller orders for server memory. According to Business Post, foreign investors sold a net 3.4248 trillion won on the KOSPI, and Korea's weight in the MSCI Emerging Markets index was 19.43% as of November 3, some 5.16 percentage points below its June peak. The money went toward content, so KODEX K Content was the strongest ETF with a 7.59% gain, and the leading industry on relative strength was autos. The clearest expression of the day, though, was SAMSUNG SDI, first on StockRank, which fell 9.2% on the 3rd, surged 11.57% on the 4th and slid another 6.61% on the day.

To separate what is what: index, industry and individual stock moves, the advance-decline counts and the macro readings are tallied figures. The data center regulation cited as the reason for the semiconductor slide is confirmed only as far as the campaign pledges and the election results, so whether it actually translates into reduced orders should still be treated as press and brokerage estimate. Investor deposits, credit financing and the MSCI weight are as of November 3 because of reporting lags, as are the US Treasury yields and crude prices. InBody, up 23.89% in bio, shows a confirmed move but we found no evidence to explain it.

Watchlist stocks by industry

Semiconductors -13.12% · 0 of 43 up

Entertainment & content +5.27% · 18 of 19 up

Bio & healthcare +3.87% · 27 of 34 up

Cosmetics & beauty +4.11% · 12 of 12 up

Defense -7.93% · 0 of 13 up

Power infrastructure -8.41% · 2 of 12 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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