KOSPI jumped nearly 18% in a day, setting a new record high for the biggest gain. The index's point increase topped 1,000 for the first time, marking record highs for both the gain and the point increase.
On the 31st, KOSPI finished trading at 6,595.45, up 1,001.89 points (17.91%) from the previous trading day. It is the highest closing-day gain on record. This is also the first time KOSPI has risen more than 1,000 points in a single day.
The previous record was 11.95% on Oct. 30, 2008, during the global financial crisis. At the time, fears over a global credit crunch and a shortage of dollar liquidity grew after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, pushing KOSPI below the 1,000 level. But when news broke that the Bank of Korea and the Federal Reserve (Fed) had signed a $30 billion currency swap, expectations spread that turmoil in the foreign exchange market would ease, and KOSPI recovered the 1,000 level in a day.
Next are 9.63% on Mar. 5, early in the Middle East war; 8.60% on Mar. 24, 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic; and 8.50% on Jun. 17, 1998, during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) foreign exchange crisis.
On Mar. 24, 2020, the Fed announced "unlimited quantitative easing," saying it would buy Government Bonds and mortgage-backed securities as needed, boosting expectations for financial market stability. The same day, the government also held the second emergency economic meeting and said it would inject a total of 100 trillion won in emergency funds into corporations and financial markets hit by COVID-19, quickly reviving investor sentiment.
On Jun. 17, 1998, as the sharp slide in the yen's value subsided and expectations grew that corporate restructuring pushed after the foreign exchange crisis—such as the exit of insolvent corporations and business reorganizations at large conglomerates—would gain speed, KOSPI surged 8.50%. The index rose from 280.00 the previous day to 303.81, posting the biggest gain on record at the time.
Meanwhile, the rebound was largely driven by U.S. big tech corporations' results reviving sentiment for semiconductor investment.
Overnight, Microsoft (MS) reported cloud results that beat market expectations and unveiled plans to expand artificial intelligence (AI) capital expenditures, raising expectations that big tech's AI infrastructure spending is translating into actual sales growth. Memory chip stocks surged across the U.S. market, and in Korea, foreign buying flocked to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.
There was also a growing view that the unwinding of leveraged positions and forced selling, which had amplified the recent stock market plunge, had progressed to a large extent. With the added judgment that the short-term decline was excessive, bargain hunting quickly flowed into semiconductor stocks.