KOSPI posts record single-day gain as semiconductor stocks rally

Microsoft quarterly results beat forecasts, easing AI spending fear

Microsoft earnings beat spurs rally after week of rout

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 1,001.89 points, or 17.91 percent, to close at 6,595.45 on Friday, its largest single-day gain in the index’s history. The point surge surpassed the previous record increase of 11.95 percent set on Oct. 30, 2008, and completely reversed a three-session rout that had knocked more than 17 percent off the benchmark. The rebound followed Microsoft’s better-than-expected second-quarter earnings report late Thursday, which beat analyst forecasts for sales and cloud-computing growth and eased concerns that heavy data-center investments by U.S. tech companies would fail to pay off.

Trade was heavy; volume reached 430.2 million shares worth 48.9 trillion won (US$34.2 billion), with 772 stocks advancing and 127 declining. Foreign investors were the dominant force, purchasing a net 7.22 trillion won of shares, while institutional investors added a net 1.15 trillion won. Individual investors, by contrast, sold a net 8.26 trillion won.

“Semiconductor shares were the main driver of the KOSPI’s surge,” said Kim Seok-hwan, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities. “Earnings of large data center operators, such as Microsoft and Amazon, eased concerns over AI investment and pushed up stocks here.”

Chipmakers and their suppliers dominated the leaderboard. Market heavyweight Samsung Electronics shot up 26.81 percent to 262,500 won. SK hynix, a major supplier of high-bandwidth memory used in AI servers, surged by the daily limit of 29.95 percent to 1.72 million won. Hanmi Semiconductor, a leading chip equipment manufacturer, soared 27.98 percent to 214,500 won, and SK Square, the holding company of SK hynix, leapt by the daily limit of 29.91 percent to 1.04 million won.

The rally was broad enough to lift other sectors. Automaker Hyundai Motor rose 10.54 percent to 388,000 won, and shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy Industries climbed 7.37 percent to 481,000 won. Defense stocks also advanced: Hanwha Aerospace gained 6.01 percent to 917,000 won, and LIG D&A jumped 9.05 percent to 699,000 won.

In a separate regulatory move aimed at calming the extreme swings that have gripped the market, the South Korean government on Friday raised the minimum cash deposit required to invest in single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to 30 million won from the previous 10 million won.

The Korean won strengthened alongside equities, trading 13.4 won higher at 1,424 won per U.S. dollar as of 3:30 p.m. local time. Bond prices rose, pushing yields lower: the yield on the benchmark three-year Korean Treasury fell 7.3 basis points to 3.758 percent, and the return on five-year government bonds dropped 6.3 basis points to 4.015 percent.