The Kospi broke through the 8,600 mark for the first time during intraday trading Sunday, pushing its total market capitalization past 7,000 trillion won ($4.66 trillion). Securities firms are increasingly forecasting that the index will eventually clear the 10,000 threshold.
As of 9:09 a.m. Sunday, the Kospi’s total market cap stood at 7,035.1 trillion won ($4.68 trillion), according to Korea Exchange.
Samsung Electronics, the Kospi’s most heavily weighted stock, led the advance with a 2.84 percent gain at the same time, buoyed by news that it had become the first company in the world to begin sample shipments of HBM4E, the seventh-generation high-bandwidth memory chip.
Samsung Electronics’ market cap reached approximately 1,905.9 trillion won ($1.27 trillion), surpassing 2,000 trillion won ($1.33 trillion) when preferred shares were included.
South Korea’s overall exports in May also hit a monthly record, rising 53 percent year-on-year to $87.75 billion, driven by a semiconductor boom.
Samsung Electronics announced on May 29 that it had begun sample shipments of HBM4E — the seventh-generation HBM product and a key component for the AI industry — becoming the first company globally to do so. The news has continued to act as a positive catalyst for the stock.
Kim Dong-won and Lee Chang-min, researchers at KB Securities, said key AI server components — including memory chips, substrates and multilayer ceramic capacitors — are increasingly shifting toward high-value products, and their share of total AI server costs is expected to expand three to five times compared with current levels. “The earnings improvement at semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix is no more than the top of the first inning,” they said, pointing to a strongly positive outlook.
LG Electronics also surged more than 27 percent Sunday, climbing to around 370,000 won ($246), after reports emerged of a meeting between the company and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
dlcw@heraldcorp.com
This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.
