Additional shareholder returns boost sentiment

Materials, parts and equipment stocks also rise

SK hynix's real-time share price is displayed at the dealing room of Hana Bank's headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Wednesday. [Yonhap]
SK hynix's real-time share price is displayed at the dealing room of Hana Bank's headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Wednesday. [Yonhap]

Samsung Electronics and SK hynix both surged more than 8% in early trading Wednesday.

The gains came as record-breaking earnings and SK hynix's announcement of an additional shareholder return program improved investor sentiment.

According to Korea Exchange, Samsung Electronics was trading up 8.33% at 240,500 won ($182) as of 10:25 a.m. Wednesday.

SK hynix was up 8.05% at 1.45 million won.

Samsung Electronics preferred shares jumped 9% to 186,500 won. SK Square, which holds a stake in SK hynix, rose 8.21% to 896,000 won.

The rally in large-cap semiconductor stocks also lifted materials, parts and equipment shares on the Kosdaq.

Jusung Engineering gained 4.81%, while EO Technics rose 4.56%, Leeno Industrial climbed 5.21%, Simtec advanced 7.08% and Wonik IPS added 5.33%.

Semiconductor stocks had already been on an upswing after Anthropic filed for an initial public offering, reviving investor appetite for the sector.

Overnight on Wall Street, major AI infrastructure stocks strengthened on news that Anthropic and Broadcom had signed an AI chip deal worth $63 billion.

Adding to the momentum, SK hynix announced a 60 trillion won additional shareholder return program before the market opened Wednesday, drawing fresh buying interest into related stocks.

Combined with a recently completed 40 trillion won buyback, the company's total shareholder returns this year now stand at 100 trillion won.

SK hynix posted a record operating profit of more than 83 trillion won in the third quarter.

"We are raising our operating profit estimate for SK hynix next year from 415 trillion won to 445 trillion won," said Park Jun-young, an analyst at Hanwha Investment & Securities. "Unlike concerns over funding at some neo-cloud providers, hyperscalers retain solid capacity for investment, and we expect the trend of expanding AI investment to continue."

Samsung Electronics is set to release its detailed third-quarter results Thursday. With the semiconductor boom driven by AI infrastructure expansion continuing, the Device Solutions division — which oversees the semiconductor business — is expected to have single-handedly driven the company's overall operating profit to nearly 110 trillion won.

"Anthropic's recent quarterly results confirmed that AI revenue growth is outpacing the rise in computing costs, strengthening market confidence in AI monetization," said Kim Dong-won, an analyst at KB Securities. "The resulting expansion of AI infrastructure investment is expected to translate directly into higher memory chip demand."


jiyun@heraldcorp.com