By Kwanwoo Jun
South Korea's benchmark stock index rose above 6000 for the first time, gaining more than 40% this year which put it among the world's top-performing markets.
Semiconductor and auto shares led Wednesday's gains as they tracked an overnight rebound in U.S. equities. South Korean chip stocks have also benefited from the global boom in artificial intelligence, supporting the stock market's rally.
The benchmark Kospi was 2.3% higher at 6108.70 in afternoon trade, extending its early gains. It has increased 45% this year.
Heavy spending by global tech giants on AI data centers has tightened supply and lifted prices of DRAM and NAND--the two main memory-chip types--as well as premium high-bandwidth memory, analysts say.
Shares of Samsung Electronics, the world's largest memory-chip maker, and SK Hynix, a main supplier of high bandwidth memory to Nvidia, have climbed about 70% and 60%, respectively, this year.
Macquarie Equity Research analysts Daniel Kim and Jacob Kim this week said they expect earnings at both SK Hynix and Samsung to jump roughly fivefold in 2026 thanks to higher memory prices.
"Memory prices to remain buoyant for longer," the Macquarie analysts said, expecting the memory-chip shortage to worsen in 2027 and 2028.
Index heavyweight Samsung Electronics was last up 2.5% while SK Hynix gained 2.3% on Wednesday. Car manufacturers also drove the Kospi gains, with Hyundai Motor and its sibling Kia advancing 9.9% and 13%, respectively.
DAOL Investment & Securities analyst J.W. Yoo said Hyundai Motor Group is pivoting from expanding auto production capacity to investing in AI infrastructure, citing its plans for robotics and a large AI data center for autonomous driving in South Korea.
The Kospi's latest rally followed a rebound on Wall Street after Monday's AI-driven selloff, as a massive chip deal between Meta Platforms and AMD eased concerns about AI's disruption to incumbent technology companies. Social-media giant Meta's $100 billion-plus deal to buy AI chips from Advanced Micro Devices helped send the Nasdaq Composite 1.0% higher. The S&P 500 and Dow industrials both gained 0.8%.
The South Korean stock market's rally this year has also been supported by President Lee Jae Myung's reforms, aimed at bolstering shareholder returns, tightening corporate governance and strengthening fiduciary duties to improve board accountability.
Since taking office in June 2025, Lee has vowed to tackle the so-called "Korea discount," a reference to the undervaluation of domestic stocks relative to global peers.
His ruling Democratic Party said Wednesday it was pushing for the passage of a revised Commercial Act requiring companies to cancel treasury shares within a year of repurchase, marking the latest in a series of investor-friendly reforms.
JPMorgan and Nomura earlier this month raised their Kospi targets, citing South Korea's reforms and the AI-led global chip industry boom. Nomura sees the index reaching 8000 in the first half of 2026, while JPMorgan forecasts 7500 this year.
Write to Kwanwoo Jun at kwanwoo.jun@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 24, 2026 23:59 ET (04:59 GMT)
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