KOSPI topped the 4,500 mark for the first time ever. After closing at a record high in the 4,440 range the previous day, the KOSPI index slid to the 4,400 level early in the session on profit-taking, but climbed past 4,500 as buying by retail investors and institutions flowed in.
As of 1:45 p.m., the KOSPI index was trading at 4,505.87, up 48.35 points (1.08%) from the previous session. Starting the day at 4,446.08, the KOSPI index deepened losses below 4,400 on foreign selling before, aided by intraday buying from retail investors and institutions, surpassing 4,500 for the first time ever at 1:44 p.m.
In the main board, retail investors and institutions were net buyers of 829.3 billion won and 111.0 billion won, respectively. Foreign investors, by contrast, were net sellers of 1.0061 trillion won, taking profits. Foreign investors had been making large net purchases almost every day over the past eight trading sessions except on Dec. 30, but turned net sellers on the day.
Buying also flowed into large-cap semiconductor stocks that were weak early on. Samsung Electronics pared its early decline of around 3% to about 0.07%, and SK hynix, after falling more than 2% early, is up in the 3% range. SK Square (3.73%), HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (6.34%), and Doosan Enerbility (2.04%) also gained.
As the KOSPI index extends its record high rally, brokerages are successively revising the KOSPI forecast bands they released late last year. Yuanta Securities Korea raised this year's KOSPI index range to 4,200–5,200 points, and Kiwoom Securities to 3,900–5,200 points.
Kim Yong-gu, an analyst at Yuanta Securities Korea, said, "As expectations for semiconductor earnings continue to be revised higher, it has become a direct factor in changing the 2026 KOSPI index outlook," and noted, "Samsung Electronics' 2025 operating profit consensus, which was only 4.62 trillion won at the end of September last year, had risen steeply to 9.08 trillion won as of the 5th of this month, and SK hynix also surged from 4.78 trillion won to 8.05 trillion won over the same period."
The KOSDAQ index, by contrast, is trading at 951.07 points, down 6.43 points (0.67%) from the previous session. Starting the day at 959.38, the KOSDAQ index is extending losses as foreign investors moved to "sell" 360.0 billion won intraday.
Seven of the top 10 KOSDAQ stocks by market capitalization are in the "blue" (down). ABL Bio (4.95%), Rainbow Robotics (4.30%), LigaChem Biosciences (0.85%), Peptron (2.13%), and Kolon TissueGene (4.17%) are falling, while Alteogen and EcoPro BM are trading flat.