Nine advancers against 186 decliners
Among the main South Korean stocks, 9 closed higher, 186 closed lower and 5 were unchanged. KOSPI ended at 5,552.74, down 215.27 points or 3.73%, and KOSDAQ ended at 781.97, down 26.92 points or 3.33%.
The fear and greed score stood at 11 for South Korea, inside the extreme fear band, and 43 for overseas markets, inside the fear band. Overseas breadth was 61 higher against 137 lower, tilted the same way but nowhere near as one-sided.
The US figures on the same screen are from a day earlier
The US indices carry October 19 closes: the Nasdaq rose 1.11%, the S&P 500 rose 0.41% and the Dow fell 0.07%. Amazon.com rose 4.98% and Tesla rose 3.76% in that session.
South Korean values are from October 20 and the US values from October 19, so the two cannot be read as reactions to the same trading day. Market news that day carried a column asking why KOSPI alone swung, which points to a domestic origin for the fall.
The three largest decliners were all defence names
Hanwha Systems fell 13.90% to 70,600 won, Hyundai Rotem fell 13.70% to 86,900 won and Hanwha Aerospace fell 11.71% to 799,000 won. All three are graded B, a grade that summarises financial condition and stands apart from a single day of trading.
On the other side, Orion rose 2.00% to 112,100 won, Dong Suh Companies rose 1.98% to 28,350 won and NC rose 1.15% to 220,500 won. Gains that small reached the top of the list because only nine stocks finished higher at all.
- Orion+2.00%
- Dong Suh Companies+1.98%
- NC+1.15%
- Hanwha Systems-13.90%
- Hyundai Rotem-13.70%
- Hanwha Aerospace-11.71%
The won moved the other way
USD/KRW fell 7.36 won, or 0.55%, to 1,326.07, meaning fewer won were needed for one dollar and the won was worth more. That runs opposite to the pattern in which the won weakens on days when stocks drop hard. News that day put the rate at its lowest in more than two years and pointed to exporters converting dollars.
Commodities split: WTI crude fell 4.13% and gold fell 0.49%, while copper rose 0.50% and silver rose 0.63%. Bitcoin fell 1.83% to 107,889,695 won and Ethereum fell 2.17% to 3,160,312 won; over seven days Bitcoin was 2.68% lower, Ethereum 5.71% lower and Cardano 9.72% lower, so the crypto decline spans a week rather than this one session.
The day began and ended at home. Indices fell sharply only in South Korea, breadth moved almost entirely one way, the currency went against stocks, and the only outside asset heading the same direction was crypto, itself on a week-long slide. How much of the drop was purely domestic cannot be settled from these figures, and that share is left open.