Benchmark index tops 6,700-point mark during trading, eyes 7,000 threshold

A financial data screen in the dealing room of Hana Bank in central Seoul on Tuesday shows the benchmark Kospi standing at 6,703.4, gaining 88.37 points, or 1.34 percent, from the previous session. (Yoon Chang-bin/The Korea Herald)
A financial data screen in the dealing room of Hana Bank in central Seoul on Tuesday shows the benchmark Kospi standing at 6,703.4, gaining 88.37 points, or 1.34 percent, from the previous session. (Yoon Chang-bin/The Korea Herald)

The South Korean benchmark Kospi surged to another high Tuesday, topping 6,700 points in during intraday trading as it continued its strong upward momentum. The index is now swiftly approaching the 7,000-point threshold.

The Kospi opened at 6,646.8 points, 0.48 percent higher from the previous session, and soon surpassed the 6,700 mark in early trading. After extending its gain to as high as 6,712.73, it partly pared the gains to stand at 6,657.45 at 2:30 p.m., climbing 0.64 percent on-session.

The index's latest record comes a day after it soared past the 6,600 mark for the first time in the previous session.

It first closed above the 5,000 mark, a historic milestone, on Jan. 27 and went on to break through the 6,000 level on Feb. 25. It is now eyeing the 7,000 mark in just over two months since then.

Foreign investor sentiment has also rebounded. Although the Iran war had earlier triggered risk-off sentiment, prompting overseas investors to offload more than 35 trillion won ($23.5 billion) worth of shares on the main board in March, they have since turned to net-buyers this month, purchasing a net 3.39 trillion won worth of stocks through the previous session.

Chip heavyweights were again leading the market higher on the day.

SK hynix rose more than 1.28 percent from the previous session, hovering around 1.31 million won, while Samsung Electronics inched down by less than 1 percent to trade near the 222,750 won level.

Soaring demand for memory chip driven by the artificial intelligence boom has lifted semiconductor stocks this year, significantly increasing the weight of the two chip giants on the Kospi.

Samsung Electronics and SK hynix together accounted for 43.6 percent of the benchmark index’s total market capitalization as of Monday, up 7.5 percentage points from 36.1 percent at the end of last year.

The figure is approaching the roughly 47 percent share held by TSMC in Taiwan’s stock market. Both Korea and Taiwan have seen strong equity market performance, supported by robust AI-driven semiconductor demand.

Hyundai Motor surged 6.68 percent to 559,000 won, following Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun’s meeting with Demis Hassabis, the co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind and known as the architect behind AlphaGo, raising expectations that intelligence development at Boston Dynamics would accelerate.

LG Energy Solution climbed 0.7 percent to 467,250 won.

SK Square, the intermediate holding firm of SK Group, rose 4.31 percent to 823,000 won, surpassing a market capitalization of 100 trillion won.


silverstar@heraldcorp.com