Foreign, institutional investors drive dual buying spree
Samsung Electronics up 5.68%, SK hynix up 8.26% in semiconductor rally
Retail investors net-sell 6.82 trillion won, most in about a month
The Kospi surged more than 4 percent Monday as semiconductor stocks rallied across the board following OpenAI's release of a new AI model and Nvidia's announcement that it would acquire AI model-sharing platform Hugging Face. Foreign and institutional investors combined for more than 5 trillion won ($3.69 billion) in net purchases, lifting the index to the 6,995 level and leaving it just 4.61 points short of reclaiming the 7,000 mark.
According to Korea Exchange, the Kospi closed at 6,995.39, up 308.18 points, or 4.61 percent, from the previous session. The index opened at 6,910.78, already up 223.57 points, or 3.34 percent, and held its gains throughout the session to finish near the day's highs.
The rally was driven by foreign and institutional investors, who net-bought 2.59 trillion won and 2.63 trillion won, respectively, on the main board. Other corporations also posted net purchases of 1.64 trillion won. Retail investors, by contrast, net-sold 6.82 trillion won as they locked in profits — the largest net-selling figure by individuals in about a month, since July 31, when they net-sold 8.28 trillion won.
The Kospi's jump was fueled by a broad advance in semiconductor stocks on Wall Street on Friday, itself triggered by positive developments from OpenAI.
OpenAI launched a new AI model called "Astra," rated at the "Critical" danger level on its internal security scale, and declared the arrival of the artificial general intelligence era. The announcement stoked expectations that demand for high-capacity products would expand, sustaining upward pressure on memory chip prices.
Nvidia's official announcement that it would acquire Hugging Face, a platform for sharing AI models, further boosted investor sentiment toward semiconductors by reinforcing expectations for memory chip demand as the AI ecosystem expands.
South Korea's two semiconductor giants led the charge: Samsung Electronics surged 5.68 percent and SK hynix jumped 8.26 percent. Related stocks also advanced, with SK Square rising 8.07 percent, Samsung Life gaining 4.87 percent and Samsung C&T climbing 4.63 percent.
Among other large-cap stocks, Samsung Electro-Mechanics rose 3.78 percent, LG Energy Solution gained 1.12 percent and Hyundai Motor advanced 2.48 percent. On the downside, Hanwha Aerospace fell 1.52 percent, Samsung SDI dropped 1.28 percent and Celltrion slipped 0.96 percent.
The Kosdaq also posted gains, closing at 822.19, up 8.69 points, or 1.07 percent, from the previous session. The index opened at 822.91, up 9.41 points, or 1.16 percent, and held a roughly 1 percent advance throughout the day.
On the Kosdaq, retail investors net-bought 189.5 billion won, while foreign and institutional investors net-sold 71.7 billion won and 131 billion won, respectively. Among top-cap Kosdaq stocks, Ecopro rose 0.12 percent, Ecopro BM gained 0.66 percent and Jusung Engineering climbed 4.99 percent. Alteogen fell 0.87 percent, Rainbow Robotics dropped 2.40 percent and Robotis declined 0.99 percent.
The won continued to strengthen against the dollar. As of 3:30 p.m., the won-dollar exchange rate stood at 1,340.5 won, down 9.9 won from the previous close, in Seoul foreign exchange trading.
th5@heraldcorp.com
