Index clears 8,500, 8,600, 8,700 and 8,800 during trading

Institutions net buy 1.9375 trillion won ($1.29 billion)

Samsung Electronics tops 340,000 won ($226), market cap hits 2,000 trillion won

LG Group stocks surge on Nvidia tailwind

A dealer works at the trading room of Hana Bank in Jung-gu, Seoul, as the Kospi surpasses the 8,600 mark for the first time during intraday trading on Monday. [Yonhap]
A dealer works at the trading room of Hana Bank in Jung-gu, Seoul, as the Kospi surpasses the 8,600 mark for the first time during intraday trading on Monday. [Yonhap]

The Kospi broke above 8,800 for the first time on Monday, extending its record-setting run after clearing the 8,500, 8,600 and 8,700 levels in succession during the session.

As of 11 a.m., the index stood at 8,826.61, up 350.46 points, or 4.13 percent, from the previous close.

The index opened at 8,485.67, up 9.52 points, or 0.11 percent, from the prior session, immediately surpassing the previous intraday and closing all-time high of 8,476.15 set on Friday.

Institutions drove the rally with net purchases of 1.9375 trillion won ($1.29 billion) on the main bourse. Foreign investors net sold 1.7851 trillion won ($1.19 billion), while retail investors net sold 59.1 billion won ($39.3 million).

Samsung Electronics crossed the 2,000 trillion won market cap threshold for the first time Monday. Shares surged 9.62 percent to 347,500 won ($231), having broken above 340,000 won ($226) for the first time during intraday trading. The gains came after the company announced it had successfully shipped samples of its next-generation HBM4E chips, fueling expectations of a semiconductor supercycle.

Samsung Life and Samsung C&T also rose, gaining 6.44 percent and 10.06 percent, respectively.

SK Hynix, which had opened lower, recovered to trade up 2.27 percent at 2,388,000 won ($1,590).

LG Group stocks advanced across the board on anticipation of deeper cooperation with Nvidia ahead of CEO Jensen Huang's visit to South Korea this week. LG Electronics jumped 27.30 percent, while LG CNS gained 24.52 percent, LG Corp 21.32 percent and LG Innotek 15.23 percent.

Huang is expected to visit South Korea after attending Nvidia's annual developer conference, GTC Taipei 2026, which opened Monday, and meet with LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo.


moon@heraldcorp.com