Kospi rally fuels first 10,000 calls as index tops 7,800

The South Korean benchmark Kospi is setting its sights on the 10,000-point milestone, as it jumped past 7,800 for the first time Monday, gaining over 4 percent amid an artificial intelligence memory boom.

Amid the Kospi's blistering rally, JPMorgan raised its bull-case target for the index to 10,000, marking the first projection of the milestone. The bank also lifted its base-case target to 9,000 and its bear-case scenario target to 6,000.

The global investment bank believed "it remains appropriate to stay positioned for further upside and not preemptively anticipate a cycle-end" for AI-driven memory momentum, further highlighting that Korea remains its most preferred market in the region.

It also suggested nonmemory sectors remain attractive, pointing to financial holding companies as key beneficiaries, backed by banks' positive earnings momentum and improving corporate governance.

On the same day, Hyundai Motor Securities projected that the Kospi could climb as high as 12,000 under a bullish year-end scenario, while raising the target price to 9,750.

Earlier, NH Investment & Securities and Goldman Sachs had presented 9,000 as their target for the benchmark index. Daishin Securities forecast 8,800 and Citigroup projected 8,500.

Meanwhile, the Kospi closed Monday at a fresh high of 7,822.24, gaining 4.32 percent from the previous session. Shortly after the opening bell, the benchmark index swiftly breached the 7,800 mark and extended its gains to as high as 7,899.32, just shy of the 7,900 threshold.

Amid the sharp rally in early trading, bourse operator Korea Exchange activated a five-minute buy-side sidecar on the main bourse at 9:29 a.m., temporarily halting program-driven buy orders in Kospi futures.

A buying curb was triggered on the Kospi for the eighth time this year, just three trading sessions after the previous activation on May 6, when the index broke above the 7,000 threshold for the first time.

Retail investors pushed the index higher, net purchasing shares amounting to 2.87 trillion won ($1.95 billion) on the main board. Institutional investors also bought up 619 billion won. Foreign investors were the sole net sellers, offloading 3.48 trillion won.

Chip giants rallied, tracking gains on Wall Street.

Samsung Electronics closed at an all-time high of 285,500 won, up 6.33 percent. SK hynix surged 11.51 percent to finish at a record closing high of 1.88 million won. During the session, the stock climbed to a new intraday high of 1.949 million won.

SK Square gained 8.11 percent to 1.187 million won, while Hyundai Motors advanced 5.38 percent to 646,000 won.

With upbeat market sentiment, the combined market capitalization of the country's stock market reached 7,088 trillion won at close, surpassing 7,000 trillion won for the first time.

The total included 6,411 trillion won on the Kospi and 674 trillion won on the secondary Kosdaq market. The milestone came roughly two weeks after the market first crossed the 6,000 trillion won threshold on April 27.