The Kospi briefly touched the 7,000 mark Wednesday before paring gains to close in the 6,700 range. Pictured is the dealing room at Hana Bank's headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul. [Yonhap]
The Kospi briefly touched the 7,000 mark Wednesday before paring gains to close in the 6,700 range. Pictured is the dealing room at Hana Bank's headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul. [Yonhap]

The Kospi briefly reclaimed the 7,100 level in early trading Wednesday, buoyed by an overnight surge in US semiconductor stocks, but surrendered most of its gains to close near 6,790. A wave of buying strong enough to trigger a buy-side sidecar circuit breaker at the open gave way to profit-taking as investors grew cautious ahead of Alphabet's earnings release, while rising global oil prices and uncertainty over US tariff policy added to the headwinds.

According to Korea Exchange, the Kospi closed at 6,797.70, up 49.75 points, or 0.74 percent, from the previous session. The index opened 304.14 points, or 4.51 percent, higher at 7,052.09 and climbed as high as 7,166.00 — a gain of 418.05 points, or 6.20 percent — before giving back most of those gains. Korea Exchange activated a buy-side sidecar on the main board at 9:06 a.m. after KOSPI 200 futures held more than 5 percent above their reference price for at least one minute.

Foreign investors were net buyers of 2.62 trillion won on the main board. Institutions and retail investors were net sellers of 1.39 trillion won and 1.23 trillion won, respectively.

The early rally was driven by an overnight jump in US chip stocks. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index surged 5.21 percent, Micron rose 12.17 percent, and SK hynix's American depositary receipts climbed 13.75 percent. Bargain hunters piled into semiconductor names that had sold off sharply on recent concerns about slowing AI investment, lifting Samsung Electronics more than 5 percent at the open and pushing SK hynix back above 2 million won intraday.

Both stocks, however, gave back their gains in the afternoon. Ongoing military tensions between the United States and Iran pushed global oil prices higher, while caution mounted ahead of a new US tariff policy announcement. Investors also adopted a wait-and-see stance before Alphabet's second-quarter earnings release, due early Thursday morning, looking for signals on whether the company would sustain its AI investment — a sentiment that triggered profit-taking concentrated in semiconductor stocks.

Among large-cap stocks, Samsung Electronics closed at 260,500 won, up 1,500 won, or 0.58 percent. SK hynix fell 6,000 won, or 0.33 percent, to close at 1.83 million won. SK Square lost 1.84 percent and Samsung Biologics fell 1.65 percent, while Samsung Electro-Mechanics gained 2.67 percent, Hyundai Motor rose 4.76 percent, LG Energy Solution added 1.26 percent, Samsung Life climbed 1.27 percent and KB Financial Group edged up 0.63 percent.

By sector, nuclear power, shipbuilding and physical AI-related stocks outperformed. Nuclear power shares rose on expectations of strong earnings and government mega-project announcements, while shipbuilding stocks attracted bargain buyers. News of Samsung Electronics' expansion into the robotics business also lifted sentiment toward physical AI-related names such as Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Mobis.

The Kosdaq closed at 751.09, down 2.25 points, or 0.30 percent, from the previous session. The index opened up 19.07 points, or 2.53 percent, at 772.41 but turned negative around 3:16 p.m.

On the Kosdaq, foreign investors and institutions were net sellers of 81.7 billion won and 191.4 billion won, respectively, while retail investors were net buyers of 263.8 billion won. Among large caps, Ecopro BM rose 1.51 percent, Ecopro gained 2.53 percent, Rainbow Robotics surged 16.28 percent and Leeno Industrial added 2.57 percent. Alteogen fell 1.83 percent, Jusung Engineering dropped 4.26 percent, Wonik IPS declined 3.79 percent, PSK slid 7.82 percent and HLB lost 6.91 percent.

"The domestic market gapped up at the open, led by bargain buying in semiconductor stocks, but gave back intraday gains under the weight of caution ahead of Alphabet's earnings and rising oil prices," said Lee Gyeong-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities. "The market is looking to Alphabet's cloud business growth and data center capital expenditure guidance to gauge whether AI investment will continue."


hajun825@heraldcorp.com