Seoul stocks up nearly 6% Wednesday morning on SK hynix earnings
The KOSPI and Kosdaq indices can be seen on a screen at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap
Korean stocks surged nearly 6 percent late Wednesday morning, led by a rally in chipmakers after SK hynix reported record quarterly earnings and announced additional shareholder returns.
After opening 2.23 percent higher, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) extended its earlier gains to trade up 326.79 points, or 5.8 percent, to 5,965.13 as of 11:20 a.m.
As the rally gathered momentum, the Korea Exchange activated a buy-side sidecar shortly before 10 a.m., suspending buy orders in program trading for KOSPI-listed shares for five minutes.
The measure is triggered when KOSPI 200 futures rise at least 5 percent and remain at that level for one minute or longer.
Overnight, U.S. stocks extended their gains, led by a rally in artificial intelligence (AI)-related technology shares.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.18 percent, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index jumped 3.6 percent, boosting investor sentiment toward South Korean chipmakers.
Earlier in the day, SK hynix reported record-high revenue and operating profit for the third quarter on robust memory chip demand and announced a shareholder return program worth more than 100 trillion won ($75.3 billion) for 2026.
Meanwhile, investors remained cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve's rate decision scheduled early Thursday (Korean time), looking for signals on the future path of U.S. interest rates.
KOSPI heavyweights rose across the board.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics advanced 7.77 percent, and chip giant SK hynix increased 7.76 percent.
SK Square, the parent firm of SK hynix, jumped 8.7 percent, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics, an electronics component affiliate of Samsung Electronics, surged 9.16 percent.
The Korean won was trading at 1,336.0 won against the U.S. dollar at 11:20 a.m., down 9 won from the close of the previous stock trading session.