The Seoul session
The Seoul stock exchange closed Friday's session slightly higher after losing more than 3% the previous day. According to The Korea Herald, the benchmark Kospi index gained 16.53 points, or 0.3%, closing at 5,550.30. The start had been sharply negative, with an opening decline of 2.36%, before a reversal during the day.
Trading volumes were subdued: 236 million shares traded for a value of 16.5 trillion won, about $12.4 billion. The most significant figure is the gap between decliners and advancers: 716 falling versus 173 rising, a sign that the index's gain was driven by a few large-cap stocks.
Who is buying and who is selling
Retail investors, initially net sellers, reversed course and ended with net purchases of 4.5 billion won. Institutions bought a net 86.8 billion won, while foreigners sold a net 98.3 billion won. The Korean won strengthened against the dollar, quoted at 1,324.6 won at 15:30, up 0.4 won from the previous session's close.
The international backdrop was not favorable: on Wall Street, the Dow Jones gained just 0.02%, while the S&P 500 lost 1.21% and the Nasdaq Composite, heavily weighted toward technology, fell 2.6%. Among U.S. stocks, Micron Technology lost 6.26%, Nvidia 4.4% and Intel 8.04%.
The Solidigm case and the chip sector
In Seoul, large-cap stocks had mixed performance. Samsung Electronics gained 0.47% to 215,500 won, while SK hynix rose 4.42% to 1.28 million won after opening lower. The news that supported the stock was the decision to suspend the listing project of its U.S. subsidiary Solidigm. SK Square, an investment company in the AI sector and parent company of SK hynix, also gained 3.2% to 775,000 won.
According to the material, the corporate structure sees SK Square as the parent company of SK hynix, which in turn controls Solidigm. A separate listing could have accentuated the so-called holding-company discount, namely the tendency for the parent company to be valued below the value of its underlying assets. Lee Kyoung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities, said that fears about AI investment coming from the United States had already been priced in after sharp declines in Samsung and SK hynix in the previous session, and that SK hynix had recovered ground thanks to improved sentiment after news of the abandonment of Solidigm's IPO plan.
What remains to be verified
The material does not clarify the official reasons for suspending Solidigm's listing, nor whether the project has been shelved permanently or merely postponed. It does not indicate the timing of the decision or any operational consequences for SK hynix and SK Square. It also remains to be seen whether today's rise represents a change in trend or merely a technical rebound, considering that declining stocks far outnumbered advancing ones.
