![SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won speaks at a press conference in New York on Friday to mark SK hynix's NASDAQ listing. [SK hynix]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/07/15/news-p.v1.20260713.ed4fb2c3d7aa438c8b8a69fd62b1ded0_P1.jpg)
SK hynix's American depositary receipt has surged to a premium of more than 51 percent above its locally listed shares just three days after its NASDAQ debut. Analysts in South Korea say the widening ADR premium could trigger a rerating of the domestic shares and draw more foreign buying.
According to Investing.com, SK hynix's ADR closed at $193.92 on Tuesday in New York, up 27.29 percent from the previous session.
Converted at Tuesday's won-dollar exchange rate, the implied value per common share comes to about 2.89 million won ($1,930) — 51.3 percent above the domestic closing price of 1.91 million won that day.
The premium stood at 14.4 percent on Friday, climbed to 24.8 percent on Monday and has now crossed 50 percent in just three trading days since the listing.
The rapid widening reflects demand from leveraged exchange-traded funds and options activity. Starting Tuesday, several US asset managers launched products that track twice the daily return of the SK hynix ADR, alongside inverse products that bet on declines. Leveraged ETFs must buy additional underlying assets or derivatives each time new money flows in, creating a self-reinforcing buying loop as the price rises.
Options trading on the ADR also began Tuesday. The Chicago Board Options Exchange listed five series of contracts expiring on the third Friday of July, August, September, December and March next year. A wave of call-option buying aimed at short-term gains, combined with hedging demand that required dealers to purchase the underlying shares, amplified the price move, analysts said.
A price target from Barclays added to the bullish sentiment. The global investment bank initiated coverage of the SK hynix ADR with an "overweight" rating and a $330 target price, based on a price-to-earnings multiple of eight times its 2027 earnings-per-share estimate.
"We expect supply tightness to deepen further next year, with only limited improvement in 2028," Barclays analyst Simon Coles said. "HBM leadership should support substantial growth going forward."
Domestic investors have also taken notice of the ADR's outperformance. About 84,000 investors purchased 1.36 million SK hynix ADR shares through nine major South Korean brokerages, according to Yonhap, with total holdings valued at 338.9 billion won. Investors appear drawn by the high valuation the US market has assigned to the stock and expectations of further gains.
Analysts say the premium expansion could have a positive spillover effect on the domestic shares. Kim Su-hyeon, head of research at DS Investment Securities, said TSMC's ADR premium also widened to 24 to 26 percent early after its listing but narrowed to 14 percent over the years as the cheaper local shares caught up. "The SK hynix domestic share price should rise at least 8 to 18 percent from the ADR listing event alone," he said.
Kim Jae-seung, an analyst at Hyundai Motor Securities, said that with the ADR trading at a premium of more than 25 percent over the local shares, global investors who can access both markets may gravitate toward the cheaper domestic stock. The premium could therefore translate into net foreign buying of the local shares, he said.
Some analysts caution that the ADR and the domestic shares should be viewed as distinct instruments. Even if the premium widens, the two markets have different investor bases, liquidity conditions and trading environments, meaning their price movements will not necessarily mirror each other.
"The SK hynix domestic share and its ADR should in effect be treated as two different companies trading in two different markets," one financial industry official said. "The premium may narrow over time, but a rise in the ADR price does not mean the domestic share will move by the same magnitude the next day or the following month in the Korean market."
moon@heraldcorp.com
