The Kospi board at Hana Bank's dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, displays index figures Tuesday as the benchmark reclaims the 7,000 level in early trading. [Yonhap]
The Kospi board at Hana Bank's dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, displays index figures Tuesday as the benchmark reclaims the 7,000 level in early trading. [Yonhap]

The Kospi reclaimed the 7,000 mark for the first time in 17 trading sessions Tuesday, driven by gains in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix on the back of an overnight rally in US semiconductor stocks. The advance came even as tensions between the United States and Iran escalated and both crude oil prices and US Treasury yields climbed.

Korea Exchange data showed the Kospi at 7,152.17 as of 10 a.m. Tuesday, up 174.23 points, or 2.50 percent, from the previous session. The index opened 149.83 points, or 2.15 percent, higher at 7,127.77.

The last time the Kospi opened above 7,000 was July 24, when it started at 7,000.78 but closed at 6,690.62, failing to hold the level. The index subsequently fell as low as 5,663.24 on July 29 before recovering ground this month to climb back above 7,000.

On the main board, foreign investors and institutions were net buyers of 1.06 trillion won ($749 million) and 111.4 billion won, respectively, while retail investors were net sellers of 1.13 trillion won.

All three major Wall Street indexes fell overnight, but semiconductor stocks bucked the trend. On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and NASDAQ all declined, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 1.64 percent.

The broader market weakness reflected renewed US-Iran tensions, which pushed up both crude oil prices and bond yields. Brent crude topped $90 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate also advanced. The yield on the 30-year US Treasury rose to 5.31 percent, its highest level since 2007.

Semiconductor stocks, however, attracted buying on AI-related tailwinds. Sentiment was supported by reports that Nvidia plans to invest up to $10.5 billion to build a large-scale data center in Ohio for OpenAI to lease. American depositary receipts of SK Hynix also posted gains.

Domestically, large-cap semiconductor stocks are leading the index higher. Samsung Electronics was trading up nearly 3 percent in the 280,000-won range, while SK Hynix surged more than 7 percent to trade around 1.75 million won.

SK Square, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Hyundai Motor, Samsung Life and Samsung C&T were also advancing. LG Energy Solution and Samsung Biologics, however, were trading lower.

Kosdaq, by contrast, was oscillating between gains and losses. As of 10 a.m., the index was up 2.40 points, or 0.28 percent, at 867.05, after opening 1.94 points, or 0.22 percent, higher at 866.59.

On the Kosdaq market, retail investors were net buyers of 89.2 billion won, while institutions and foreign investors were net sellers of 87.4 billion won and 100 million won, respectively.

Among top Kosdaq stocks by market capitalization, Alteogen, Ecopro, Ecopro BM and Leeno Industrial were declining. Rainbow Robotics, Jusung Engineering, Wonik IPS, HLB and EO Technics were moving higher.

Market analysts said the Kospi could attempt to consolidate above 7,000 if foreign buying continues and semiconductor stocks maintain their momentum.

Han Ji-young, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, said the shift from foreign net selling to net buying, combined with a broadening rebound across multiple sectors, suggests the market's underlying health is improving. "If the robustness of this month's exports is reconfirmed, domestic stocks — centered on semiconductors, which only recently joined the rebound — are expected to work through profit-taking during the week and push toward a firm footing above 7,000," Han said.


hajun825@heraldcorp.com