![The Kospi and other indexes are displayed on a board at Hana Bank's dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Monday. The Kospi closed up 13.11 points, or 0.15 percent, at 8,801.49, while the Kosdaq fell 24.00 points, or 2.29 percent, to 1,026.03. [Yonhap]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/06/02/rcv.YNA.20260602.PYH2026060217210001300_P1.jpg)
The Kospi briefly touched the 8,900 mark for the first time Monday before swinging between gains and losses to close at a record high of 8,801.49. Profit-taking weighed on stocks that had surged the previous session — including LG Electronics, which drew heavy buying on optimism over a semiconductor boom and an anticipated visit by Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang. The market's top-performing investors seized on the morning weakness as a buying opportunity.
According to Korea Exchange, the Kospi closed up 13.11 points, or 0.15 percent, at 8,801.49, surpassing the previous all-time closing high of 8,788.38 set the day before. Foreign investors extended their selling streak to 18 consecutive sessions, but heavy retail buying absorbed the pressure and pushed the index higher.
According to Mirae Asset Securities, high-return investors trading on its platform net purchased LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Naver and SK Telecom — in that order — during morning trading. High-return investors are defined as those whose investment returns ranked in the top 1 percent among Mirae Asset Securities' equity trading customers over the past month.
As of 11 a.m., LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics and Naver were all trading lower as profit-taking followed their recent sharp gains, and top investors used the pullback as a chance to buy at lower prices.
LG Electronics, the top net-purchase pick among high-return investors, was trading around 358,500 won (about $237), down roughly 5.78 percent, as of 11 a.m. It recovered to close up 3.15 percent from the previous session at 392,500 won.
The stock had attracted strong buying the previous day on expectations surrounding Huang's visit to South Korea and potential AI cooperation, but a wave of profit-taking pushed it lower in the morning. Top investors then moved aggressively to buy the dip.
Samsung Electronics ranked second in net purchases among top investors. Despite heavy foreign selling that kept the stock in volatile territory below the 86,000-won level in the morning, Samsung Electronics held a 0.72 percent gain at 351,500 won before closing up 3.30 percent at 365,000 won. The stock also touched an intraday record of 370,000 won during the session.
Samsung Electronics' market capitalization grew by roughly 70 trillion won in a single day, lifting it past Meta Platforms — the parent company of Facebook — to 10th place globally. Analysts attributed the continued share price gains to sustained expectations for a prolonged semiconductor boom.
Naver ranked third in net purchases. The stock had led the market the previous session on hopes of benefiting from AI tailwinds, but fell as much as 7.00 percent to 252,500 won during Monday's session before recovering to close up 3.31 percent at 280,500 won.
As Naver's share price dropped early in the session, top investors appeared to preemptively build positions. They judged that Huang's actual visit would bring renewed focus on concrete momentum around AI platform and service cooperation.
SK Telecom ranked fourth in net purchases among top investors, closing up 11.59 percent from the previous session at 125,200 won. POSCO Holdings came in fifth, closing down 3.39 percent at 399,000 won.
On the selling side, the stocks that top investors offloaded most heavily in the morning were Hyundai Motor, Hanmi Pharmaceutical and Hyundai Mobis, in that order.
yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com
