Spot silver fell below $68/oz, down 1.82% intraday.

Korea's National Pension Service (NPS) reported a 27.2% return for 1H, its strongest half-year since at least 2022. As of end-June NPS managed KRW 1,866 tln (USD 1.35 tln). Domestic equities returned 107.4% as the KOSPI reached record highs. Overseas equities returned 17.8%; overseas fixed income 9.22%; alternatives 9.6%; domestic bonds -3.0%. NPS attributed the results to strong domestic and global equity market performance. The preliminary 1H return already exceeds last year’s record full-year return of 18.8%.

South Korea's KOSPI fell 123.48 points, or 1.79%, to 6,788.89 at the close on Friday, Aug. 28; SK Hynix dropped 3.87% and Samsung Electronics fell 2.81%.