SK hynix(000660) surged to the intraday price limit on the 31st. As stocks that had plunged sharply in the recent market rout rebounded, U.S. semiconductor gains and foreign buying combined to send the share price sharply higher.
According to the Korea Exchange (KRX), SK hynix touched the upper price limit, rising 29.95% to 1,718,000 won as of 2:10 p.m., up from the previous trading day.
Overnight in New York, strong results from Microsoft (MS) and expectations for expanded investment in artificial intelligence (AI) came to the fore, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 8%, which appears to have had an impact. As sentiment toward domestic semiconductor stocks, which had been dampened by the recent plunge, revived, foreign buying also poured in.
News that SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won bought SK hynix shares on the market the day before also boosted sentiment. SK hynix disclosed the day before that Chey bought 3,620 common shares on the market. Based on the previous day's closing price of 1,322,000 won per share, the purchase amounts to about 4.78564 billion won.
Based on the intraday upper-limit price of 1,718,000 won that day, the valuation of the shares Chey purchased increased to about 6.21916 billion won. Compared with the previous day's close, that is an increase of about 1.43352 billion won in a single day. The per-share paper gain is 396,000 won, for a return of about 30%. Actual profit may vary depending on the exact purchase price and transaction expense, among other factors.
Single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on SK hynix as the underlying asset also soared in tandem. A product that tracks twice SK hynix's one-day return rose more than 55% intraday.
Large-cap semiconductor stocks rallied across the board, leading the index higher. In particular, SK Square rose 29.91% and Samsung Electro-Mechanics climbed 29.92%, and with SK hynix also hitting the price limit, an unusual scene unfolded in which 3 of the top 5 KOSPI market-cap stocks hit their intraday upper limit.