Section 1 — Macro Dashboard

Regime verdict: Korea Bear / US Neutral. The KR–US divergence is the defining tension: US breadth is holding (50MA breadth 47.2%), but Korean breadth has collapsed to 30% above the 50-day MA. The macro headwind — USD/KRW above 1,500, US 10Y at 4.62%, and Brent near $111 — is compressing multiples on growth and semiconductor names simultaneously.

Section 2 — Market Wrap

Tuesday’s Korea session was a broad risk-off sell-down with selective pockets of strength. KOSPI closed near 7,304 (−2.81% intraday) and KOSDAQ at 1,084 (−2.40%). The headline flow number: foreign investors sold a net ₩4.83 trillion on KOSPI alone — one of the heavier single-day outflow readings in recent weeks.

What drove the weakness. Three forces converged. First, macro pressure: USD/KRW held above 1,507, the US 10-year pushed 4.62%, and oil prices remained elevated despite tentative Iran negotiation headlines offering partial relief. That combination hits high-multiple growth names hardest. Second, semiconductor-specific headwinds: Seagate’s CEO signalling caution on capacity expansion triggered a negative read-across into memory and storage equipment names globally, which transmitted to Korea’s semiconductor supply chain. Third, the broader Bear regime in Korea is filtering capital away from domestic risk assets.

Sector scorecard. The session’s clear winners were defense stocks and power/energy infrastructure — both sectors where domestic policy demand and long-cycle capex are less sensitive to global rate moves. Some AI infrastructure discovery names also held up. Losers were concentrated in large-cap semiconductors, high-multiple robotics and equipment names, and brokerages.

Flow nuance. Institutional buyers provided partial defense on select large-cap names, absorbing foreign selling at the margin. However, the split — foreign selling vs. institutional buying — is not yet stabilising enough to call a floor. The operating screener environment remains formally BULL on a rules basis (Discovery score 65/100, Day 20), but the intraday picture argues for selectivity over breadth.

Context note. Brokerage research files (Hana, NH, Mirae) were not available today. The regime assessment uses intraday data and screener signals; confirmed closing data was not filed by the time of this briefing.

Section 3 — Today’s Quality Re-Rating Candidates

Today’s meta screener ranked 119 tickers across a 5-layer framework — Quality Compounder, Smart Money Quality, Cycle Rerating, Smart Money Earnings, and PEAD — against official DART filings and Kiwoom market surface data. Candidates with 3+ screener overlaps are the primary focus; 2-overlap names back the thesis.

Top Candidates Table

Top 3 — Brief Context

EOTechnics (039030.KQ) — Meta rank 5, overlap rank 1. EOTechnics manufactures laser processing systems used in semiconductor wafer dicing and PCB drilling — direct exposure to the advanced packaging and AI chip supply chain. It is the only name today hitting all four non-quality screeners simultaneously: Smart Money Quality (#1), Cycle Rerating (#7), Smart Money Earnings (#1), and PEAD (#14). The operating leverage story is concrete: revenue grew 18.7% YoY while operating income grew 158.8%, expanding OPM by 11.5 percentage points. Foreign and quality-institutional net buying totalled +₩8.6B over the past five days — unusual in today’s otherwise foreign-selling market. The meta screener ranked it #5 (below pure Quality Compounder names) because it lacks the Quality Compounder flag, but the money flow and earnings combination is the strongest in today’s universe. Key risk: short ratio at 9.5%, program selling pressure, and a high trailing PER of 100x that requires sustained earnings delivery to justify.

Device Co. (187870.KQ) — Meta rank 1, overlap rank 3. Device makes special-purpose machinery for semiconductor and display manufacturing processes. It tops the meta screener on the strength of operating leverage: OP YoY +311.9% on revenue growth of +78.2%, with a margin expansion of +11.7 percentage points. A merger-related DART filing (2026-05-18) introduces corporate structure change risk that warrants verification before treating the name as a clean re-rating candidate. PEAD score is solidly positive (+0.68), suggesting post-earnings drift momentum has not yet been fully priced in. The stock sits 32% below its 52-week high, providing re-rating runway.

Gigabis (420770.KQ) — Meta rank 3, overlap rank tied. Gigabis produces automated optical inspection (AOI) equipment used in PCB and panel manufacturing — a quality-control bottleneck that benefits as board complexity increases for AI server builds. The earnings acceleration is the most extreme in today’s table: OP YoY +777.2% with a margin expansion of +29.9 percentage points from a low base. Consensus estimates are being revised upward (composite z-score +1.50), making this a classic quality re-rating setup where analysts are catching up to reported numbers. The trailing PER of 98x is high, reflecting the growth optionality priced in. Institutional buying is present, but foreign and program flows are net negative — suggesting positioning is still concentrated domestically.

All financial data sourced from today’s screener runs (2026-05-19). DART filing checks cover a 21-day lookback window. This post is market analysis only and does not constitute investment advice.