Late rally reverses midday slide

Korea's market cap rises to world's 6th largest

Foreign investors sell for 18th straight session; retail buyers step in

Kosdaq falls for 5th consecutive session

The Kospi and other market indicators are displayed on a screen at Hana Bank's dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Monday. [Yonhap]
The Kospi and other market indicators are displayed on a screen at Hana Bank's dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Monday. [Yonhap]

The Kospi closed above 8,800 for the first time on Monday, breaching that threshold on a closing basis and surging as high as the 8,900s intraday — fueling speculation that the index could eventually reach 10,000, a level traders have dubbed "Manspi."

Korea Exchange data showed the benchmark index finished at 8,801.49, up 13.11 points (0.15%) from the previous session, topping the prior closing record of 8,788.38 set the day before.

The index opened sharply higher at 8,883.19, up 94.81 points (1.08%), immediately surpassing the previous intraday all-time high of 8,874.16.

It then extended gains to 8,933.62, crossing the 8,900 mark for the first time. At that intraday peak, the index stood just roughly 66 points short of the 9,000 level.

The rally faded as the index gradually gave back gains and turned negative, sliding as low as 8,503.12 before buyers returned and pushed it back into positive territory in the final stretch of trading.

Samsung Electronics, the top stock by market capitalization, closed up 3.30% at 360,500 won (about $239) — the first time the stock has finished above 360,000 won. The share price briefly touched 370,000 won during the session.

The gain may have been partly driven by Samsung Electronics unveiling the first physical mockup of its eighth-generation high-bandwidth memory chip, HBM5, at Computex 2026 in Taipei, Taiwan, signaling its intent to lead in next-generation HBM technology.

At one point during the session, Samsung Electronics surged more than 6% intraday, briefly overtaking Tesla — ranked ninth globally by market cap at $1.561 trillion — in total market value. The stock had already jumped 10.09% the previous session.

SK Hynix edged down 0.13% to close at 2,360,000 won. The stock climbed as high as 2,407,000 won intraday, setting a new all-time high, before reversing course as profit-taking pressure mounted following its steep recent run-up.

SK Square, the third-largest stock by market cap, surged 7.17% to close at 1,346,000 won. Hyundai Motor, ranked fourth, fell 2.8% to 729,000 won, while Samsung Electro-Mechanics, ranked fifth, dropped 9.58% to 1,813,000 won.

On the main board, retail investors and institutions were net buyers of 6.2948 trillion won and 253.3 billion won, respectively, while foreign investors were net sellers of 6.5703 trillion won. Foreign investors have now posted net selling for 18 consecutive sessions since May 7.

Market analysts now view the 10,000 level as within reach. Hyundai Motor Securities and IBK Securities forecast the Kospi could reach as high as 12,000 this year under an optimistic scenario. DB Securities projected 11,700, Yuanta Securities 11,600, KB Securities 10,500, and Hana Securities 10,380 — with most brokerages calling for the index to hit 10,000.

In contrast to the Kospi's record run, the Kosdaq fell 24.00 points (2.29%) to close at 1,026.03, marking its fifth consecutive session of losses.

Decliners on the Kosdaq included EcoPro BM (down 4.35%), EcoPro (down 2.15%), Alteogen (down 2.46%), Samchundang Pharmaceutical (down 7.50%) and HLB (down 6.13%). Gainers included Jusung Engineering (up 6.15%), Kolon TissueGene (up 15.26%) and LigaChem Biosciences (up 0.61%).

As of the close, the combined market capitalization of South Korea's equity markets — the Kospi, Kosdaq and Konex — stood at 7,793.198 trillion won. According to Bloomberg, South Korea's stock market has surpassed India to rank sixth in the world by market capitalization.


jiyun@heraldcorp.com