South Korea's KOSDAQ jumped sharply in early August, including an Aug. 10 buy-side sidecar triggered after steep gains in KOSDAQ 150 futures and the underlying index, as biotech, secondary-battery and semiconductor-related shares rallied. Reporting cited the KOSDAQ up 18.72% from Aug. 1-10 and 32.5% from July 31 to Aug. 10, while the KOSPI lagged. Institutions were reported as major net buyers during the rebound, but retail investors increasingly positioned for a pullback by buying KOSDAQ inverse products and selling a leveraged long ETF, suggesting they viewed the surge as a technical rebound or short-term rotation rather than a durable trend.