Hello, I am Jun Ji-hye, a reporter at The Korea Times. I primarily cover financial authorities and write articles on a wide range of topics related to finance and capital markets. If you have any information to share, feel free to email me at jjh@koreatimes.co.kr, and I will review it carefully. I am committed to always doing my best to communicate with readers through high-quality articles.
KOSPI closes near 8,500 as AI rally drives fresh high
KOSPI is displayed on an electronic board at the dealing room of Hana Bank's headquarters in Seoul, Friday. The benchmark index closed at 8,476.15, up 290.86 points, or 3.55 percent, from the previous session, hitting another all-time high. Yonhap
By Jun Ji-hye
KOSPI hit another record on Friday, topping 8,400 and moving closer to the 8,500 milestone as easing geopolitical concerns and renewed enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI)-related stocks lifted investor sentiment following overnight gains on Wall Street.
The country's benchmark index opened 199.02 points, or 2.43 percent, higher than the previous session at 8,384.31, and maintained its upward momentum to close at 8,476.15, up 290.86 points, or 3.55 percent.
Market sentiment strengthened after media reports said the United States had finalized working-level discussions on a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the conflict with Iran and had begun circulating a draft among allies, including Israel.
Hopes that ceasefire negotiations were nearing a final settlement also helped ease concerns over oil prices, which had recently weighed on global financial markets. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures retreated to the $80-per-barrel range.
On Wall Street, AI-focused cloud computing company Snowflake surged 36 percent after raising its annual sales forecast and securing a long-term partnership with Amazon Web Services.
The rally reignited investor appetite for AI-related shares, lifting Nvidia and AMD and pushing the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up 1 percent.
Upbeat global sentiment spilled over into the Korean market, where most large-cap stocks traded higher, led by semiconductor heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.
In particular, Samsung Electronics rose 5.84 percent after announcing before the opening bell that it had begun sample shipments of the 12-layer HBM4E, its seventh-generation high-bandwidth memory chip, marking the world's first shipment of the next-generation AI memory product.
Meanwhile, the secondary Kosdaq index opened 7.79 points, or 0.71 percent, higher from the previous session at 1,112.15, but soon reversed course to close at 1,074.80, down 29.56 points, or 2.68 percent.
In the Seoul foreign exchange market, the Korean won strengthened against the U.S. dollar to open at 1,495.5 won per dollar, a gain of 7.3 won from the previous session, but later reversed course to close onshore trading at 1,507.9 won, down 5.1 won from the previous session.