On the 16th, SK Telecom(017670) is surging 6%.
As of 9:31 a.m. that day, SK Telecom is trading at 90,500 won on the Korea Exchange, up 5,500 won (6.47%) from the previous session.
It is seen that investor sentiment was buoyed by news that the government will push in earnest to build artificial intelligence (AI) data centers (DC), one of the three mega projects of the "Republic of Korea's great leap."
SK Telecom is also accelerating the expansion of its AI data center business. The company the previous day created the AIDC integrated task force under the chief executive officer (CEO) and appointed Jeong Seok-geun, head of AICIC, as the task force lead.
SK Telecom is leading SK Group's AI data center business. Starting with an AI data center under way in Ulsan, it plans to expand the business to Yeongnam and Honam.
In the securities industry, expectations for the AI data center business, along with earnings recovery and normalization of dividends, are seen to support the share price. Meritz Securities on the day raised its investment opinion on SK Telecom to "buy" from "hold" and increased its target price to 110,000 won from 98,000 won.
Jeong Ji-su, an analyst at Meritz Securities, said, "With the increase in 5G subscribers remaining after the penalty waiver took effect on Jan., wireless business performance is steadily improving," and noted, "the second-quarter dividend per share (DPS) is also expected to be 830 won, the same as the previous quarter, with the annual DPS at 3,320 won."