Samsung Electronics trades above 275,000 won; SK hynix above 1.8 million won

Semiconductor equipment stocks also rally; Jusung Engineering up more than 4%

The trading board at Hana Bank's headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul, displays real-time Kospi and Kosdaq readings Wednesday, as both indexes opened higher. The Kospi started the session up 72.66 points, or 1.06 percent, at 6,943.47, while the Kosdaq rose 4.98 points, or 0.59 percent, to open at 854.78. [Yonhap]
The trading board at Hana Bank's headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul, displays real-time Kospi and Kosdaq readings Wednesday, as both indexes opened higher. The Kospi started the session up 72.66 points, or 1.06 percent, at 6,943.47, while the Kosdaq rose 4.98 points, or 0.59 percent, to open at 854.78. [Yonhap]

Samsung Electronics and SK hynix both advanced in early trading Wednesday, lifted by gains in AI and semiconductor stocks on Wall Street overnight.

According to Korea Exchange, Samsung Electronics was trading at 275,250 won ($202), up 1.01 percent from the previous session, as of 9:10 a.m. on the main Kospi market.

The stock opened up 0.73 percent at 274,500 won and climbed as high as 276,000 won, a gain of 1.28 percent, before paring some of its advance.

SK hynix, the other half of the semiconductor duo, was changing hands at 1,808,000 won, up 2.44 percent from the prior close at the same time. The stock briefly touched 1,811,000 won, a gain of 2.61 percent, before giving back some ground.

The overnight rally in AI and semiconductor shares on Wall Street appeared to spill over into the domestic market, even as elevated US government bond yields continued to weigh on sentiment.

The catalyst was Anthropic's initial public offering prospectus, filed ahead of a planned listing this year, which outlined at least $518 billion in long-term spending on AI computing and infrastructure over the next decade. The disclosure ignited investor enthusiasm.

Micron gained 1.1 percent and Meta rose 3.2 percent overnight, while SK hynix's American depositary receipts closed up 2.62 percent.

As of the same time, foreign and institutional investors were net buyers of 58.9 billion won ($43.3 million) and 9.1 billion won, respectively, on the Kospi market, while retail investors were net sellers of 98.9 billion won.

Within the Kospi electrical and electronics sector, which includes Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, foreign investors held a net buying lead of 37.2 billion won and institutions of 7.8 billion won, while retail investors were net sellers of 76.1 billion won.

Other corporate investors were net buyers of 31.2 billion won in the Kospi electrical and electronics sector, partly reflecting the ongoing share buyback programs at Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.

Semiconductor equipment stocks were also rising in early trade. The gains followed overnight advances in equipment makers on Wall Street — including Lam Research, Applied Materials, KLA, ASML and Arm — after Anthropic signaled plans to expand its infrastructure investment.

As of 9:21 a.m., Jusung Engineering was up 4.73 percent at 232,500 won. Its market cap of around 10.87 trillion won vaulted it past Ecopro BM to rank third by market capitalization on the Kosdaq.

Other semiconductor equipment names were also posting gains on the Kosdaq, with Wonik IPS up 2.46 percent, EO Technics up 5.15 percent, Leeno Industrial up 0.68 percent and HPSP up 3.61 percent — all ranking among the top stocks by market cap on the index.

The Kospi was up 42.31 points, or 0.62 percent, at 6,913.12 as of 9:23 a.m., after opening 72.66 points, or 1.06 percent, higher at 6,943.47 as it attempted to reclaim the 7,000 level. Foreign investors were net buyers of 25 billion won, while institutions and retail investors were net sellers of 40 billion won and 81 billion won, respectively.

The Kosdaq opened up 4.98 points, or 0.59 percent, at 854.78 and was trading 8.15 points, or 0.96 percent, higher at 857.95 at the same time.


yuni@heraldcorp.com