Following an overnight surge in the U.S. memory sector last Friday, Micron Technology (MU.US) rose over 8%, SanDisk Corp. (SNDK.US) gained more than 7%, Western Digital (WDC.US) increased over 3%, and Seagate Technology PLC (STX.US) climbed more than 2%. On May 11, Beijing time, South Korean stock futures rose 5%, leading to a temporary trading halt in the KOSPI index. The Korea Exchange activated the SIDECAR mechanism, suspending programmatic buy orders for KOSPI. SK Hynix saw an intraday surge of up to 10% on the Korea Exchange, becoming the largest individual stock driving the KOSPI index higher. Samsung Electronics skyrocketed 6.7%, with its stock price also hitting a new historical record. The technology-dominated Korea Composite Stock Price Index has accumulated an 85% gain so far this year.
Boosted by the record-high stock prices of South Korean semiconductor leaders Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, related fund products in the A-share and Hong Kong markets that invest in the South Korean semiconductor sector have continued to attract concentrated capital inflows this year, becoming popular allocation targets. Among them, the China-South Korea Semiconductor ETF managed by Huatai-PineBridge, as the first ETF in the A-share market investable in the South Korean stock market, has sustained a premium due to scarce QDII quotas and persistently high sector investment sentiment, achieving a year-to-date gain of 98.76%, nearly doubling its returns.
The core rationale behind the continued historic rally in Micron Technology and SanDisk last week is straightforward: ongoing expansion in artificial intelligence infrastructure investment is driving rapid growth in demand for memory chips, while industry supply remains tight. Under the combined effects of strong demand, tight supply, and rising prices, the market has begun to reprice the earnings elasticity of memory chip companies.
Hong Kong-listed stocks related to the memory chip industry chain: Hong Kong-listed leveraged South Korean semiconductor ETFs: CSOP 2X Long SK Hynix ETF (07709), CSOP 2X Long Samsung ETF (07747), CSOP Hong Kong South Korea Technology ETF (03431) Hong Kong-listed stocks related to memory chips: MONTAGE TECH (06809), GIGADEVICE (03986)