Kospi surges 3.56% to 6,813 as foreign buying drives fourth straight gain

The Kospi closed up more than 3% on Thursday, reclaiming the 6,800 level on the back of strong foreign buying for a fourth consecutive session of gains.

The benchmark index finished at 6,813.34, up 3.56% on the day. It opened 2.96% higher at 6,773.92 and at one point surged as high as 6,895.63, coming within striking distance of the 6,900 mark, before trimming gains heading into the close.

Foreign investors and institutions posted net purchases of 2.1 trillion won ($1.48 billion) and 679.8 billion won, respectively, while retail investors were net sellers of 2.72 trillion won. Foreign investors have now been net buyers for three consecutive trading sessions, while retail investors have been net sellers for the same stretch.

The combined market capitalization of the Kospi, Kosdaq and Konex markets recovered the 6,000 trillion won mark for the first time since July 23, a span of 15 trading sessions.

By market, the Kospi's market cap stood at 5,619.05 trillion won, while Kosdaq and Konex recorded 474.86 trillion won and 3.51 trillion won, respectively.

Growing expectations for AI infrastructure investment strengthened investor sentiment, particularly around AI and semiconductor stocks. Overnight gains in semiconductor shares on Wall Street carried over into the domestic market.

AI cloud provider CoreWeave and server maker Super Micro Computer each surged nearly 20% on Wednesday after posting surprise earnings, reigniting optimism over AI infrastructure spending. Memory chip maker Micron Technology climbed 4.92%, while SK Hynix's American depositary receipts jumped 9.01%.

Riding that momentum, Samsung Electronics — the Kospi's largest stock by market cap — rose 4.89% to close at 268,000 won, while second-ranked SK Hynix gained 5.92% to finish at 1.593 million won. Both stocks continued to advance in after-hours trading following the regular session.

SK Square (up 9.08%), Samsung Electro-Mechanics (up 12.58%), Hyundai Motor (up 2.20%) and LG Energy Solution (up 1.95%) also closed higher.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics posted particularly sharp gains. Morgan Stanley named the company its top pick on Wednesday and raised its price target to 2.62 million won from 2.56 million won.

Morgan Stanley cited a high likelihood of stronger multilayer ceramic capacitor prices and improving demand for Ajinomoto build-up film substrates as the basis for the upgrade.

The Kosdaq opened up 0.49% at 863.15 and closed up 0.29% at 861.37, also marking its fourth straight session of gains.

Retail investors were net buyers of 257.4 billion won on the secondary market, while foreign investors and institutions were net sellers of 136.4 billion won and 116.1 billion won, respectively.

Many of the top stocks by market cap on the Kosdaq closed higher, including Ecopro (up 0.88%), Ecopro BM (up 0.09%), Rainbow Robotics (up 1.43%), Jusung Engineering (up 3.05%) and Wonik IPS (up 7.62%).

"Domestic stocks, led by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, have been rallying on consecutive sessions on the back of tailwinds from US markets, with the proportion of advancing Kospi stocks at around 35 percent," said Im Jeong-eun, an analyst at KB Securities. "Tonight brings the release of the US July producer price index. With the latest consumer price index data pushing the probability of a September rate hold up to around 60 percent, it remains to be seen whether the market's favorable reading of inflation will continue."