Amid the continued strength of technology stocks in the U.S. market, the KOSPI and KOSDAQ indexes both started higher on the 7th.
As of 9:10 a.m. on that day, the KOSPI index recorded a rise of 26.28 points (1.06%) to reach 2,515.28 compared to the previous transaction day. This marks the first time the KOSPI has surpassed the 2,500 level since the 16th of last month.
Foreign investors, who have continued to record net buying for more than two days for the first time in 83 days since October 14-15 of last year, are also net buying 60.8 billion won on that day. Retail investors and institutions are net selling 32.7 billion won and 27.7 billion won, respectively.
With the momentum of the AI theme being buoyed by the world's largest home appliance and IT exhibition, "CES 2025," semiconductor stocks are showing strength in the securities market. Following a 9.84% surge the previous day, SK Hynix is maintaining an upward trend and has returned to "200,000 Hynix" during intraday trading. Samsung Electronics, LG Energy Solution, Samsung Biologics, and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries are also rising.
At the same time, the KOSDAQ index is recording a rise of 5.02 points (0.70%) to reach 722.98 compared to the previous transaction day. While retail investors and institutions are net buying 37.2 billion won and 800 million won, foreign investors are net selling 31.7 billion won.
Most of the top market capitalization stocks in the KOSDAQ market are also on the rise. Pharmaceutical and bio-related stocks, including Alteogen, LigaChem Biosciences, Samchundang Pharmaceutical, and CLASSYS, as well as secondary battery-related stocks such as Ecopro and robotics stocks like Rainbow Robotics, are also increasing.
The U.S. Institute for Supply Management (ISM) manufacturing index announced over the weekend exceeded expectations, further enhancing the positive outlook for domestic stock market turnaround alongside Korea's December export growth rate (6.6%).
Overnight, the U.S. stock market continued to see strength in AI technology stocks. Nvidia, ahead of CEO Jensen Huang's keynote speech at CES 2025, rose 3.43% to set a new all-time high. Semiconductor-related stocks, including Micron Technology (10.45%), TSMC (5.46%), ASML (7.58%), AMD (3.33%), Qualcomm (1.28%), and Broadcom (1.66%), all saw increases. With this momentum, the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.24%, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index jumped 2.84%.