![SK Hynix [Yonhap]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/06/24/news-p.v1.20260624.51ab5536829d4824b4e873af6e71a240_P1.png)
KB Securities maintained a buy rating and a target price of 3.8 million won ($2,470) on SK Hynix Wednesday, saying the previous day's 12% drop in the chipmaker's shares presented an opportunity to add to positions.
Analysts Kim Dong-won, Lee Chang-min and Kang Da-hyeon said the structural shift in memory chip demand made it highly likely that earnings estimates for SK Hynix would be revised upward further in the second half of this year.
"Customer memory demand fulfillment currently stands at only around 50 percent," the analysts said, adding that a supply shortage in the memory chip market was likely to deepen further next year.
They said that even if new factory capacity were added, actual production would be concentrated on high-bandwidth memory (HBM), leaving only limited room to expand conventional memory output — making it difficult to absorb rising demand.
The analysts also said HBM price negotiations for next year were underway and that prices were expected to rise more than 100 percent from the prior year, reflecting a narrowing of the margin gap with conventional DRAM.
They estimated SK Hynix's operating profit for the second quarter of this year at 69 trillion won, eight times the level recorded in the same period last year — an earnings surprise that would exceed market expectations.
On the previous day's 12.47% share price drop, the analysts attributed the sell-off to a sharp deterioration in investor sentiment driven by concerns over the possibility of US interest rate hikes and SK Hynix's failure to be included in the MSCI Developed Markets index.
Even so, they said "what has changed at this point is only investor sentiment," adding that industry conditions and earnings were continuing to improve and that the share price pullback should be seen as an opportunity to increase exposure.
The analysts added that memory chips were expected to account for 25 percent of the total platform cost in Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform, set for release in the second half of this year. They said SK Hynix stood to benefit the most as it expanded its share of next-generation memory supply.
They also said SK Hynix's planned American depositary receipt listing in August was expected to narrow the valuation gap with Micron and serve as a catalyst for further share price gains.
Kospi bounces back after Tuesday's rout
Meanwhile, the Kospi rebounded more than 2 percent at the open Wednesday, recovering from the previous day's steep losses.
As of 9:02 a.m., the Kospi was up 186.69 points, or 2.28 percent, at 8,390.53, according to Korea Exchange.
The index opened 152.95 points, or 1.86 percent, higher at 8,356.79 and extended its gains in early trading.
On Tuesday, the Kospi had closed down 910.71 points, or 9.99 percent, at 8,203.84.
That was the second-largest percentage decline of the year, behind only the 698.37-point, 12.06 percent drop on March 4 — shortly after the outbreak of the Iran war — and marked the largest single-day point loss ever recorded relative to the prior close. Korea Exchange activated a program-sell sidecar around 11:40 a.m., halting program sell orders for five minutes. A circuit breaker was triggered at 2:33 p.m., suspending all trading for 20 minutes, but neither measure was enough to stop the slide.
Foreign and institutional investors net-sold shares worth 4.1391 trillion won and 4.5129 trillion won, respectively. Retail investors absorbed 8.5223 trillion won in net purchases — the largest single-day net buying on record — but it was not enough to fully support the market.
yul@heraldcorp.com
