Samsung Electronics surges 10%, Kospi closes above 8,780 on Jensen Huang visit hopes

Institutions net buy 2.5 trillion won, lifting Kospi 3.68%

Samsung Electronics closes at 349,000 won; SK Hynix at 2,363,000 won

Doosan Robotics hits upper limit; Doosan jumps 11.71%

Kosdaq falls 2.30% as gains concentrate in large caps

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers a keynote address at a side event of the annual Computex trade fair in Taipei, Taiwan, on Monday. [Reuters]

The Kospi closed above 8,780 on Monday, buoyed by a sharp surge in Samsung Electronics and mounting expectations over a visit to South Korea by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Institutional investors drove the rally with more than 2.5 trillion won ($1.8 billion) in net purchases, while hopes for AI cooperation between Huang and major Korean companies spread beyond semiconductors into robotics and conglomerate stocks.

The benchmark index surged more than 3 percent during the session, briefly challenging the 8,800 level intraday. It closed at 8,788.38, up 312.23 points, or 3.68 percent, from the previous session. Total Kospi market capitalization came to 7,204.509 trillion won.

The index opened at 8,485.67 and climbed as high as 8,874.16 during the session. The rapid advance triggered a buy-side sidecar on the Kospi during trading. According to Korea Exchange, the mechanism halted program buy orders for five minutes starting at 11:30:32 a.m. after the KOSPI 200 futures index spiked. At the time of activation, the KOSPI 200 futures index stood at 1,417.90, up 67.90 points, or 5.02 percent, from the previous close.

Institutional buying led the Kospi's advance. Institutions posted net purchases of 2.5301 trillion won on the main board. Individual investors also leaned toward buying, with net purchases of 381.2 billion won. Foreign investors, by contrast, were net sellers of 2.9187 trillion won.

Among large-cap stocks, Samsung Electronics and Samsung Electronics preferred shares stood out as the session's biggest gainers.

Samsung Electronics closed at 349,000 won, up 10.09 percent from the previous session, while Samsung Electronics preferred shares surged 13.09 percent. SK Hynix rose 1.29 percent to close at 2,363,000 won. Among the top 10 stocks by market cap, SK Square gained 1.87 percent, Hyundai Motor 3.73 percent, Samsung Life 5.53 percent and Samsung C&T 5.20 percent. Samsung Electro-Mechanics fell 5.74 percent, while LG Energy Solution and HD Hyundai Heavy declined 0.66 percent and 1.72 percent, respectively.

The main catalyst for Monday's rally was anticipation of Jensen Huang's visit to South Korea. Huang is expected to travel to Korea after completing his schedule at Nvidia's annual AI event, GTC Taipei 2026, in Taiwan. Markets grew increasingly hopeful that the visit could extend beyond HBM supply chain discussions into broader physical AI cooperation — spanning robotics, smart factories, cloud computing and digital twins.

Reports that Huang could hold a so-called "second Kkanbul meeting" with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin further lifted sentiment around related stocks. Investors also recalled the strong rally in domestic AI and semiconductor shares that followed Huang's meeting last year with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung.

The excitement spilled over into Doosan Group stocks after reports emerged that Huang could throw the ceremonial first pitch at a Doosan Bears home game during his visit. Doosan Robotics hit the daily upper limit, closing at 138,400 won, up 29.95 percent from the previous session. Doosan also surged 11.71 percent to close at 2,203,000 won.

The connection between Doosan Robotics and Nvidia had already drawn attention in April, when Madison Huang, a senior director at Nvidia, visited Doosan Robotics to discuss physical AI technology cooperation. That earlier link helps explain why news of Jensen Huang's expected visit sparked a broader rally across robotics stocks.

Kosdaq moved in the opposite direction from the Kospi. The index closed at 1,050.03, down 24.77 points, or 2.30 percent, from the previous session. It opened at 1,072.77, climbed as high as 1,082.75 intraday, then reversed course and fell as low as 1,043.91.

On the Kosdaq, selling by individuals and institutions weighed on the index despite foreign buying. Foreign investors were net buyers of 794.2 billion won, but individuals and institutions were net sellers of 486.6 billion won and 291.4 billion won, respectively. As capital flowed into large-cap Kospi semiconductor stocks and shares seen as beneficiaries of Huang's visit, Kosdaq underperformed by comparison.

kacew@heraldcorp.com