Samsung Electronics surge sends KOSPI above 8,800 intraday for 1st time

The KOSPI and Samsung Electronics shares are displayed on a screen at the dealing room of Woori Bank headquarters in Seoul, Monday. The KOSPI broke above the 8,800 mark for the first time in intraday trading, driven by a sharp rally in Samsung Electronics shares. Yonhap

KOSPI soared above the 8,800 milestone in intraday trading for the first time in history on Monday, as Samsung Electronics spearheaded the rally with a more than 10 percent jump in its share price.

The benchmark index opened 9.52 points, or 0.11 percent, higher at 8,485.67, immediately surpassing its previous record closing high of 8,476.15 set Friday.

Buying momentum gathered pace throughout the session, carrying KOSPI past the 8,500 level before extending gains through the 8,600 and 8,700 marks and eventually breaching 8,800 intraday. Although it gave up part of its gains late in the session, the index still finished at a record closing high of 8,788.38, up 312.23 points, or 3.68 percent.

As the market rally intensified, a buy-side sidecar was activated at around 11:30 a.m., amid heightened volatility in KOSPI200 futures. The mechanism is triggered when KOSPI200 futures rise at least 5 percent above the reference price and sustain the gain for one minute, temporarily suspending program buy orders for five minutes.

The latest activation was the first in three trading sessions and marked the 11th buy-side sidecar this year.

Samsung Electronics led the market rally, with its shares surging 10.09 percent to close at a record 349,000 won ($232), topping the 340,000 won mark for the first time. The rally also lifted the chipmaker’s market capitalization above 2,000 trillion won, another historic first.

Samsung had already topped the 2,000 trillion won threshold Friday on a total market capitalization basis including preferred shares. Monday’s milestone marked the first time its common shares alone exceeded that level. No other listed company in Korea has previously reached the 2,000 trillion won mark.

The rally followed Samsung’s announcement in the previous trading session 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 artificial intelligence (AI) memory product.

Analysts continue to see room for further gains in Samsung Electronics and the broader Korean market.

“Samsung Electronics remains materially undervalued relative to its earnings potential, supported by its relative advantage in production capacity among memory chipmakers, expanding participation in the HBM market and a growing foundry order pipeline,” said Han Dong-hee, an analyst at SK Securities.

Separately, DB Securities presented an even more bullish outlook for Korean equities, forecasting that KOSPI could surpass 10,000 points and potentially reach 11,700 in the second half as AI-related infrastructure spending remains robust.

“Korea’s semiconductor exports are posting exceptional growth as hyperscalers ramp up AI investment following the rise of generative AI services,” said Kang Hyun-ki, an analyst at DB Securities. “Sustained spending on AI infrastructure should continue to underpin gains in the local stock market, with semiconductor shares and other leading sectors maintaining their upward momentum.”

The secondary bourse Kosdaq, meanwhile, opened 2.03 points, or 0.19 percent, lower at 1,072.77 and fluctuated around the flatline before turning downward and extending losses to close at 1,050.03, down 24.77 points, or 2.30 percent, from the previous session.

In the Seoul foreign exchange market, the Korean won opened 0.9 won lower at 1,508.8 won per dollar before reversing course to close onshore trading at 1,504.3 won, strengthening 3.6 won from the previous session.