South Korean retail investors sold 14.707 trillion won (approximately $10.9 billion) of KOSPI shares during the first eight trading days of September, including five consecutive sessions of net selling from September 3 to 9. Their cumulative sales during that five-day stretch reached 16.8362 trillion won (approximately $12.5 billion), while the KOSPI reclaimed 7,000 on September 9. Institutions, foreign investors and other corporate entities absorbed the supply, with the latter group’s purchases driven mainly by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix buybacks. The shift coincided with a more than 20 trillion won increase in major-bank time deposits, which surpassed 1,000 trillion won, as brokerage deposits and trading activity fell toward yearly lows. Investors also directed more than 430 billion won to inverse ETFs and $146.5 million to the ultra-short-term Treasury ETF SGOV. Analysts described the movement as a reversal of funds from equities into safer assets, while warning that rate decisions, inflation data, oil prices, geopolitical tensions and the FOMC meeting could keep markets volatile.