KOSPI closes at 6,742.74 on August 25, 2026 — after a 4.3% intraday drop
The KOSPI in South Korea closed at 6,742.74 on August 25, 2026, up 45.78 points or 0.68 percent. The headline number hides the day: the index fell to 6,408.82 intraday, 4.30 percent below the previous close, and a sell-side sidecar was triggered. It then recovered 333.92 points from that low. Foreigners sold a net 3.95 trillion won — more than on the prior day, when the index fell 3.12 percent — while institutions bought 1.22 trillion won and retail investors 1.15 trillion won. The KOSDAQ closed at its intraday high of 827.15
The three lines
- Index — KOSPI 6,742.74 (+45.78 points, +0.68%). Intraday low was 6,408.82, or -4.30%
- Range — 333.92 points from low to close. A crash and a recovery inside one session
- Flows — Foreigners sold ₩3.95tn; institutions bought ₩1.22tn and retail ₩1.15tn. KOSDAQ 827.15
Key questions
- What did the KOSPI close at on August 25, 2026?
- **6,742.74**, up **45.78 points** or **0.68 percent** from the previous session's 6,696.96 on August 24. On the tape that reads like a quiet up day. It was not. The intraday low was **6,408.82** — **288.14 points, or 4.30 percent**, below the prior close — and the index recovered **333.92 points** from there. The KOSDAQ, Korea's smaller-cap board, ran the same shape: a low of 781.89 in the morning and a close of **827.15**, up **1.70 percent**, which was also the session's high. Both boards finished at or near the top of their daily range, meaning buyers were still coming in when the bell rang.
- What was the sidecar that was triggered?
- A **sell-side sidecar** fired in the morning as the index dropped through the 6,580 area on its way to 6,408.82. A sidecar in Korea suspends **program trading orders for five minutes** when the futures price moves beyond a set threshold and stays there for one minute. It is not a market halt — that is a circuit breaker, which stops all trading. A sidecar freezes only the basket orders. The fact that one fired tells you something about the character of the morning: this was **basket-level selling**, not weakness in one or two names. The direction changed in the afternoon, when semiconductor-related shares recovered. On the KOSDAQ, chip equipment and component names led the way — Samjeon Engineering +7.71 percent, Woonik IPS +5.55 percent, Semtec +11.12 percent.
- Foreigners sold nearly 4 trillion won. Why did the index rise?
- Because the buying side absorbed it at rising prices. Foreign net selling was **3.95 trillion won**; institutions bought **1.22 trillion** and retail **1.15 trillion**. Those two do not add up to the foreign figure — the remainder was taken by **other corporates**, a category covering general companies and funds that fall outside the retail, institutional and foreign buckets. Korean closing reports named institutions and other corporates together as the buyers behind the rebound. The comparison with the day before is the useful part: on August 24 foreigners sold ₩3.68tn and the index fell 3.12 percent; on August 25 they sold **more**, ₩3.95tn, and the index rose. **The size of net selling is not the cause of direction.** What sets the index is the price at which that supply clears.
The KOSPI closed at 6,742.74 on August 25, up 45.78 points, or 0.68 percent.
The intraday low was 6,408.82 — 4.30 percent below the previous close.
Both facts describe the same session.
1. The numbers
| Aug 24 close | Aug 25 low | Aug 25 close | |
|---|---|---|---|
| KOSPI | 6,696.96 | 6,408.82 (-4.30%) | 6,742.74 (+0.68%) |
| KOSDAQ | 813.33 | 781.89 (-3.87%) | 827.15 (+1.70%) |
The KOSPI's intraday high was 6,747.16 against a close of 6,742.74. The KOSDAQ's intraday high was its close.
Both boards finished at the top of their daily range. Buyers were still stepping in at the bell.
Low to close, the KOSPI travelled 333.92 points and the KOSDAQ 45.26. A crash and a recovery fit inside one session.
2. What happened in the morning
The index fell through the 6,580 area, and in that stretch a sell-side sidecar was triggered.
A sidecar suspends program trading orders for five minutes when the futures price moves past a set threshold and holds there for one minute. It is routinely confused with a circuit breaker, but the two stop different things — a circuit breaker halts the whole market, while a sidecar freezes only basket orders. Everything else keeps trading.
The important signal is not that the market fell but that a sidecar fired at all. The morning's selling came in baskets, not from one or two names.
For readers outside Korea, this is worth knowing because the same mechanism produces the eye-catching single-day foreign outflow numbers the Korean market is known for: large allocation decisions are executed as one basket across 15 or more KOSPI 200 constituents at once.
3. Flows — nearly ₩4tn sold, and the index rose
| Investor | KOSPI net |
|---|---|
| Foreigners | -₩3.9491tn |
| Institutions | +₩1.2207tn |
| Retail | +₩1.1461tn |
The arithmetic does not close. Foreigners sold ₩3.95tn; institutions and retail together bought ₩2.37tn. The remaining roughly ₩1.58tn was absorbed by other corporates — general companies and funds that sit outside the three named categories. Korean closing reports credited institutions and other corporates together for the rebound.
Set the two sessions side by side and the point becomes hard to miss.
| Date | Foreign net selling | KOSPI |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 24 | ₩3.6765tn | -3.12% |
| Aug 25 | ₩3.9491tn | +0.68% |
More stock was sold on the day the index rose.
Net selling is a measure of volume, not of direction. What sets the index is the price at which the supply clears. On August 24 sellers walked their offers down and the market followed; on August 25 buyers took the supply at the lows and then bid it back up. The same mechanism produced opposite results on consecutive days.
4. What turned it
Closing reports converge on one description: semiconductor shares recovered in the afternoon.
On the KOSDAQ, chip equipment and component names led — Samjeon Engineering +7.71 percent, Woonik IPS +5.55 percent, Semtec +11.12 percent. The KOSDAQ's close at its session high fits that pattern.
There is a scheduling fact in the background. Nvidia was due to report quarterly results after the US close on August 26, and its shares had fallen for seven consecutive sessions going into it. Korean chip names had spent two sessions positioning around that event. This brief covers the numbers at stake in "Nvidia reports on August 26 — the bar is $92 billion."
What cannot be established is the trigger. Outlets describe the recovery consistently and explain it differently, and this brief found no basis for choosing among them.
5. What is not settled
- Sidecar timing — the trigger is reported by multiple outlets; the exact times are not confirmed.
- The cause of the reversal — "chips recovered" is the agreed result, not an explanation.
- Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix — August 25 closes could not be cross-checked. Samsung had fallen 8.7 percent the previous session, so the size of its bounce matters for reading this index move.
- Other corporates — the figure is inferred from a residual, not confirmed.
- What to watch — Nvidia's results, after the US close on August 26 (Korean morning of August 27). The afternoon rebound came from chip names, so that report and its guidance set the opening level for Korean semiconductors on August 27.
Sources
- Infostock Daily — KOSPI recovers from a 4% intraday drop to close above 6,700 (August 25 close check)
- Jabon — KOSPI rebounds to 6,742.74 after 4% intraday plunge; foreigners sell ₩3.9491tn
- Youth Daily — KOSPI closes higher after 4% intraday fall on buying from institutions and other corporates
- Businesskorea — KOSPI retakes 6,700 on a chip-share rebound; won-dollar rate closes higher
- Business Post — Sell-side sidecar triggered as KOSPI falls 4% to the 6,580 level intraday
- Herald Business — KOSPI holds despite ₩4tn of foreign selling, rebounding from a 4% plunge
- Daegu MBC — KOSPI recovers 6,700; KOSDAQ also closes higher