Lee Hyo-jin covers the Bank of Korea, the banking industry and broader financial news. Her previous beats include foreign affairs, North Korea and general reporting on Korean society.
KOSPI ends slightly higher after intraday swings
The won-dollar exchange rate and the benchmark KOSPI are displayed on a board in Hana Bank’s dealing room in Seoul, Monday. KOSPI closed at 6,755.75, up 0.97 percent from the previous session. Yonhap
By Lee Hyo-jin
Korea's benchmark KOSPI closed nearly 1 percent higher Monday after a choppy session, as semiconductor stocks remained volatile following the Shanghai debut of China's ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT).
KOSPI ended at 6,755.75, up 0.97 percent from the previous session, according to the Korean Exchange. The index opened at 6,806.27 before falling to as low as 6,557.39 during the session, but recovered in afternoon trading.
Foreign investors were net sellers of 2.89 trillion won ($1.97 billion), while retail and institutional investors were net buyers of 1.98 trillion won and 862.4 billion won, respectively.
Market bellwethers ended higher, with Samsung Electronics rising 1.8 percent to 254,000 won and SK hynix gaining 3.41 percent to 1.816 million won.
Notably, shares of Naver surged 8.43 percent to close at 225,000 won after Nvidia announced earlier in the day that it would acquire a 4.5 percent stake in the company through a $1 billion strategic investment.
Investors welcomed a $950 billion Korea-U.S. artificial intelligence (AI)-related partnership announced on Saturday during President Lee Jae Myung's visit to the AI Summit in San Francisco.
The initiative includes flagship projects in semiconductors, AI data centers and physical AI, backed by partnerships between leading Korean and U.S. technology companies.
However, semiconductor stocks remained volatile after CXMT, China's largest DRAM maker, surged more than 500 percent above its initial public offering price on its Shanghai market debut, fueling concerns that intensifying competition in the memory chip market could weigh on Korean chipmakers.
"The announcement of a large-scale AI partnership with U.S. technology companies helped support investors' sentiment, but the big debut of CXMT heightened volatility in semiconductor stocks, leading to sharp swings in the Korean equities market," said Kang Jin-hyuk, an analyst at Shinhan Securities.
The secondary bourse Kosdaq rebounded 2.22 percent to close at 764.86, recovering from Friday's 5.32 percent plunge.
In the Seoul foreign exchange market, the won weakened 1.9 won against the U.S. dollar to close at 1,468.5 won per dollar.
Attention is now turning to the earnings season, with major Korean and U.S. technology companies set to report results this week.
SK hynix is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings on Wednesday, followed by Samsung Electronics on Thursday. In the United States, Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Amazon are also due to report results this week, with investors watching closely for updates on AI infrastructure spending.