As the KOSPI index keeps hitting record highs day after day, it turned out that roughly one out of every 10 listed stocks set a 52-week intraday high.

On the afternoon of the 12th, the electronic board in the dealing room at Hana Bank in Jung-gu, Seoul shows the KOSPI closing at 3,395.54, up 51.34 points (1.54%) from the previous transaction day. /Courtesy of News1

According to the Korea Exchange on Sep. 14, a total of 245 stocks on the main bourse and the KOSDAQ set 52-week intraday highs from Sep. 1 through 12th.

There are 2,660 listed stocks currently being traded on the main bourse and the KOSDAQ, and 9.2% of them did so.

First, large domestic semiconductor stocks climbed across the board and hit new 52-week highs as expectations for U.S. rate cuts and Oracle, the U.S. software company, offering an upbeat earnings outlook boosted hopes for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

SK hynix rose for nine consecutive trading days, climbing intraday to 329,500 won on 12th to renew both its 52-week high and all-time high. Samsung Electronics and Samsung Electronics preferred shares also rose intraday that day to 75,600 won and 60,900 won, respectively, marking 52-week highs.

Financials, seen as policy beneficiaries, also one after another set 52-week highs. On 10th, a day before President Lee Jae-myung's 100th-day-in-office press Q&A, BOOKOOK Securities climbed to 84,600 won, logging a 52-week high on expectations that the government would keep the threshold for defining a major shareholder, subject to capital gains tax on stock transfers, at the current 5 billion won.

On 12th, Kiwoom Securities (259,000 won), Mirae Asset Life Insurance (8,050 won), and Samsung Life Insurance (167,900 won) all renewed their intraday 52-week highs.

Food stocks also placed many names on the list of 52-week highs. As the Netflix animated film "K-pop Demon Hunters" became a hit and foreigners' interest in Korean ramen rose, expectations of future earnings improvement flowed in.

Samyang Foods climbed intraday to 1,665,000 won on 11th, renewing both its 52-week high and all-time high, while Nongshim also set a 52-week high at 579,000 won on 12th.

In addition, on expectations of benefits from MASGA ("Make American Shipbuilding Great Again"), a South Korea–U.S. shipbuilding cooperation project, shipbuilding stocks such as Hanwha Ocean (3rd, 123,800 won), HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (5th, 438,000 won), and HD Hyndai Marine Solution (12th, 227,500 won) also one after another recorded 52-week highs.

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