A Reuters survey showed 36 of 37 economists expect the Bank of Korea to raise its policy rate to 2.75% at the July 16 meeting. Of 31 economists, 28 expect the policy rate to reach 3.00% by year-end.

After a sharp prior-day drop, the KOSPI held the 6,800 level as foreign and institutional buying offset weakened retail demand. Retail investors were net sellers of KRW 4.15 tln. Foreigners net-bought KRW 961.6 bln and institutions net-bought KRW 3.21 tln; within institutions, ETF-driven "financial investment" flows bought KRW 1.89 tln, pension funds KRW 86.8 bln and insurers KRW 150.8 bln.

US stocks at the open: Dow Jones +0.08%, S&P 500 -0.32%, Nasdaq -0.73%. Tech-led losses: SK Hynix (SKHY.O) down >8%, SanDisk (SNDK.O) down >6%, Micron Technology (MU.O) down 5%, Intel (INTC.O) down 4%, Qualcomm (QCOM.O) down 1%.