South Korea's KOSPI closed at 6,954.52 after briefly reaching 7,171.52, failing to sustain the 7,000 level despite a semiconductor-led rally tied to OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra launch. The index fell 0.58% from the prior session as retail investors sold ₩3.3265 trillion, overwhelming net purchases of ₩932 billion by institutions and ₩658.2 billion by foreign investors. Kiwoom Securities estimates that retail investors hold approximately ₩87 trillion in net purchases made at KOSPI levels of 7,000 or above, rising to ₩111.5 trillion when financial investment accounts are included. Analysts say the accumulated positions create a substantial supply overhang that foreign and institutional demand must absorb. Astra's reported use of recurrence depth, which repeats computations until objectives are achieved, has strengthened expectations for demand for HBM (high-bandwidth memory) and high-speed networking. Samsung Electronics gained 7.80% and SK Hynix rose 12.34% in the three sessions after the launch. Goldman Sachs has retained a KOSPI target of 12,000, while Morgan Stanley and HSBC have upgraded their views on South Korean equities. Foreign investors shifted from ₩170 trillion of net KOSPI selling through August to more than ₩1.4 trillion of net buying in September. However, potential semiconductor ETF rebalancing sales, lower market liquidity, U.S. inflation data and yen carry trade (borrowing cheaply to buy higher-yielding assets) unwinding remain risks to near-term volatility. Market experts identify the absorption of retail selling as a key condition for a sustained KOSPI bull market.