The KOSPI index was up more than 3% early on the 7th. The rise appears to be driven by a surge in memory chip stocks after OpenAI released its next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) model "Astra."

On the morning of the 7th, a digital board in the dealing room at Hana Bank in Jung-gu, Seoul displays the KOSPI and KOSDAQ indices. The KOSPI opens at 6,910.78, up 223.57p (3.34%) from the previous transaction day. /Courtesy of News1

As of 9:03 a.m. that day, the KOSPI index was at 6,896.82, up 209.61 points (3.13%) from the previous trading day. The KOSPI opened at 6,910.78, up 3.34% (223.57 points) from the previous trading day.

In the main bourse, foreigners and institutions were net buyers of 338.8 billion won and 123.7 billion won, respectively, while individuals alone were net sellers of 476.4 billion won.

Most top market-cap stocks on the main bourse were rising. Samsung Electronics(005930) and SK hynix(000660) were leading the market with gains of more than 4% and 5%, respectively. SK Square, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Hyundai Motor, Samsung Biologics, Samsung Life Insurance and KB Financial Group were also climbing, while LG Energy Solution alone was falling.

At the same time, the KOSDAQ index was at 825.24, up 1.44% (11.74 points). The KOSDAQ started the session at 822.91, up 9.41 points (1.16%).

In the KOSDAQ market, individuals were net buyers of 16.1 billion won, while foreigners and institutions were net sellers of 6.4 billion won and 9.1 billion won, respectively.

Nine of the top 10 KOSDAQ market-cap stocks were advancing. EcoPro, EcoPro BM, Rainbow Robotics, Jusung Engineering, Wonik IPS, EO Technics, LEENO Industrial, SIMMTECH and HLB were rising, while Alteogen alone was falling.

The KOSPI's strength that day appeared largely due to tailwinds from U.S. semiconductor stocks. Earlier, on the 3rd, OpenAI unveiled GPT-6 Astra. OpenAI said, "Astra is the smartest model in the world," adding it is "a milestone on the road to artificial general intelligence (AGI)." AGI refers to an AI model with human-level intelligence, and expectations grew that memory chip prices would rise.

On the 4th, the last trading day of the week, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 3.38%, and SK hynix American depositary receipt (ADR) also posted gains of more than 8%.

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