On the news that the United States and Iran agreed to a two-week cease-fire, semiconductor stocks were strong on the 8th. Semiconductor stocks such as Samsung Electronics, whose gains were limited the previous day despite record earnings due to Middle East–driven geopolitical uncertainty, are surging on expectations that macro risks will ease.
As of 9:27 a.m. that day on the benchmark KOSPI market, Samsung Electronics was trading at 210,500 won, up 14,000 won (7.12%) from the previous session.
At the same time, SK hynix was also up 9.72% at 1,005,000 won. Earlier, SK hynix jumped more than 20% to 1.1 million won in the NextTrade (NXT) premarket, triggering the static volatility interruption (VI).
The news of a cease-fire agreement between the United States and Iran is seen as stoking investor sentiment that had been suppressed the previous day. The previous day, Samsung Electronics said its operating profit for the first quarter of this year topped 57 trillion won, but with the chances of a cease-fire between the United States and Iran seen as low, shares of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix rose only around 1%.
However, that day, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Truth Social about an hour before the negotiation deadline expired, "We have agreed to suspend bombings and attacks on Iran for two weeks on the condition that Iran agrees to the complete, immediate and safe opening of the Strait of Hormuz." As a result, investor sentiment is improving quickly.
At the same time, warmth is spreading across semiconductor stocks overall. HANMI Semiconductor (8.28%), ISU Petasys (6.79%) and Wonik IPS (4.82%) were also strong.