Kospi hits record high, races toward 7,000

The South Korean benchmark Kospi surged to another high as of closing Tuesday as it continued its strong upward momentum. The index is now swiftly approaching the 7,000-point threshold.

The Kospi closed at 6,641.02, gaining 0.39 percent from the previous session. It notched an all-time high as of closing, surpassing Monday's record 6,615.03 close. During trading, it surged to a record high of 6,712.73, surpassing the 6,700 mark for the first time.

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 just two months later.

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 3.21 trillion won worth of stocks through Tuesday.

Chip heavyweights showed mixed performance.

While Samsung Electronics inched down 1.11 percent to 222,000 won, SK hynix rose 0.62 percent to 1.3 million won. Earlier, it touched a fresh high of 1.328 million won.

The semiconductor giants have been leading the market higher in recent months with the soaring demand for memory chips driven by the artificial intelligence boom.

Hyundai Motor surged 5.92 percent to 555,000 won, following Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun’s meeting with Demis Hassabis, the co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, raising expectations that artificial intelligence development at Boston Dynamics would accelerate.

LG Energy Solution climbed 1.72 percent to 472,000 won.

SK Square, the intermediate holding firm of SK Group, rose 2.79 percent to 811,000 won. Its market cap reached 107.01 trillion won, surpassing the 100 trillion won mark.