The KOSPI index broke through 7,800 in early trading on the 11th, rewriting history once again. Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are both hitting all-time highs. Following Intel, AMD also reported strong results, reinforcing investors' confidence in the growth of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.
Early this morning, as the KOSPI 200 futures index surged more than 5%, a KOSPI buy-sidecar was triggered at 9:29 a.m. It is the eighth time this year that a buy-sidecar has been activated on the main board.
The KOSPI started trading at 7,775.31, up 227.31 points (3.70%) from the previous session. With large-cap semiconductor stocks strong, retail investors and the national pension are net buyers, lifting the index. As early gains widened, the index climbed to as high as 7,825 points.
As of 9:30 a.m., retail investors on the main board are net buying 450 billion won. Foreign investors and institutions are net selling 132.4 billion won and 288.5 billion won, respectively. However, within institutions, long-term funds such as the national pension and investment trusts are net buying 163.5 billion won and 10.9 billion won, respectively. Securities firms, which include retail exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows, show a selling bias of 481.2 billion won.
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are up around 5% and 9%, respectively, leading the index higher. Among the top market-cap names on the main board, SK Square, Hyundai Motor, Samsung C&T, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, and Hanwha Aerospace are rising, while LG Energy Solution, Samsung Biologics, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics are falling.
Some warn of overheating as funds concentrate in large-cap semiconductor stocks and the market surges. But as their earnings outlooks keep getting revised higher and U.S. stocks continue to hit a record high, risk appetite is being stoked.
New York stocks finished higher on the week. In particular, the Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 index and the Nasdaq hit a record high. U.S. jobs data topped market expectations, and strength in semiconductor stocks helped lift the indexes.
In particular, AMD's results again confirmed a boom in server-oriented CPU markets. With AMD's server CPU growth highlighted following Intel, Intel and AMD shares each jumped more than 25% over the weekend.
However, as U.S.-Iran cease-fire talks face the risk of collapse, international oil prices are surging.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on the 10th (local time) on the social media platform Truth Social, "I just read the response from Iran's so-called 'representatives,' and I don't like it. Totally unacceptable."
The KOSDAQ market is weak. The KOSDAQ index started trading at 1,212.88, up 5.16 points (0.43%) from the previous session, but turned lower in early trading.
Eight of the top 10 KOSDAQ market-cap stocks are falling. Except for Kolon TissueGene and Jusung Engineering, names including EcoPro BM, EcoPro, Alteogen, and LEENO Industrial are all lit in blue.