Market cap exceeds 6 quadrillion won as chip giants near 50 percent share
South Korea's Kospi surged past 7,400 points Wednesday, vaulting through the 7,000 mark for the first time, as a chip-led rally pushed the market's value above 6 quadrillion won ($4.12 trillion).
The benchmark index opened at 7,093.01, up 2.25 percent from Monday's close, immediately eclipsing its previous record of 6,937 set earlier this week.
Gains accelerated through the session, driving the Kospi above 7,400 in afternoon trading. The index climbed as much as 7,426.6, rising more than 7 percent from the previous trading day.
The rally was strong enough to trigger a buy-side sidecar about six minutes after the open, after Kospi 200 futures jumped more than 5 percent, temporarily halted program sell orders for five minutes. It marked the eighth buy-side sidecar this year.
From its 2025 close of 4,214 points, the Kospi has now gained more than 75 percent as of Wednesday's intraday high. The surge also put the Korean benchmark above the S&P 500's latest close of 7,259.22, after the US gauge rose 0.8 percent Tuesday to a fresh record.
Chip stocks powered the advance, turning the Kospi's rally into a concentrated surge led by its largest names. Samsung Electronics jumped as much as 16 percent to a record 270,000 won, lifting its market value above 1.5 quadrillion won for the first time and making it only the second Asian chipmaker, after TSMC, to cross the $1 trillion mark.
SK hynix extended its record run from Monday, climbing as much as 11 percent to over 1.6 million won. Its market value, which topped 1 quadrillion won for the first time earlier this week, rose further above 1.1 quadrillion won, placing it 16th among listed companies globally, behind Samsung Electronics at 11th.
The rally also swept through related heavyweights. Samsung Electronics preferred shares, the third-largest Kospi stock by market value, gained more than 10 percent to hit an intraday record of 187,500 won. SK Square, SK hynix's largest shareholder and the fourth-largest Kospi stock, surged 26 percent to 1,149,000 won.
Together, the four chip-linked stocks accounted for nearly half of the Kospi's market value, helping push the benchmark's total capitalization above 6 quadrillion won for the first time.
Foreign investors powered the rally, snapping up a net 2.1 trillion won of Kospi shares as of 2:30 p.m. Institutions stayed on the selling side, unloading a net 1 trillion won, while retail investors swung through the session before turning net sellers of about 800 billion won by midafternoon.
Analysts see the Kospi's record rally as both a global chip-cycle story and a highly concentrated move in Seoul, where gains have been driven overwhelmingly by semiconductor heavyweights.
Shinhan Securities analyst Kang Jin-hyuk said the Kospi's "melt-up continued, led by semiconductors," as easing Middle East tensions and foreign inflows fueled the rally. He said memory chip shares surged as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq extended their record run, but noted that the rally in Seoul remained narrow, with decliners outnumbering gainers 680 to 190.
IM Securities analyst Park Sang-hyun said the semiconductor upcycle is also changing how Korea's market absorbs macro shocks, including higher oil prices. "The biggest reason the Kospi can show a strong rally, unlike in previous high-oil periods, is that the semiconductor trade surplus is far exceeding the oil deficit," the analyst said, adding that the artificial intelligence-led chip cycle is giving Korea's economy and stock market stronger momentum than in past episodes of elevated energy prices.
The Kosdaq, Seoul's secondary index, failed to join the rally, falling about 1 percent to hover near 1,200 even as the Kospi surged.
The won briefly weakened at the open, starting 3 won lower against the US dollar at 1,465.8. It strengthened as trading progressed, hovering around 1,457 per dollar as of 2:30 p.m.
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