South Korea's Kospi jumped 6.63% to close at 6,012.44 on Wednesday, reclaiming the 6,000 level as SK hynix and Samsung Electronics surged on record chip earnings and a major shareholder return plan.
South Korea's Kospi jumped 6.63% on Wednesday to close at 6,012.44, reclaiming the 6,000 level for the first time in about two weeks as chipmakers surged on SK hynix's record results.
The benchmark gained 374.10 points and rose as high as 6,032.28 during the session. Samsung Electronics climbed 9.01% to 242,000 won and SK hynix soared 10.89% to 1.49 million won. Foreign investors bought a net 815.83 billion won of shares and institutions bought 960.79 billion won, while individual investors sold a net 1.8 trillion won. The won weakened by 10.7 won to 1,337.7 against the dollar.
The rally was driven by SK hynix, which had reported record third-quarter revenue and operating profit on demand for memory chips used in artificial intelligence, and announced a shareholder return programme worth more than 100 trillion won. The Korea Exchange activated a buy-side sidecar shortly before 11 a.m., suspending programme buy orders for five minutes, for the second straight session.
The closing level, the size of the gain and the individual stock moves are reported by Yonhap through the Korea JoongAng Daily and match the intraday account from Aju Press, which records the index crossing 6,000 at 10:57 a.m. and reaching 6,023.35 at its peak. SK hynix's own quarterly results were already reported earlier in the day's coverage; this story covers the market's response to them, not the earnings themselves, which is a separate event from the index close.
The move eases, for now, a worry that had hung over the market: that the AI chip boom had peaked. An analyst at Yuanta Securities was quoted as saying SK hynix had shown strong AI chip demand could translate into solid profits and shareholder returns, easing concern about the sustainability of the rally and a possible peak in the memory cycle.
The next test comes quickly. Investors were awaiting the United States Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, due early Thursday in Korean time, and Samsung Electronics was due to release finalised third-quarter earnings on Thursday, either of which could decide whether the Kospi holds above 6,000.