Kospi breaks 3,600 points thanks to chipmakers, sets new record

The Kospi broke 3,600 points on Friday, setting a new all-time high in just a week, driven largely by chipmakers riding the momentum of a U.S. semiconductor rally.

Electronic display boards in a dealing room at Kookmin Bank in Yeouodo, western Seoul shows the stock market on Friday. The benchmark Kospi broke 3,600 points, setting an all-time high on the first trading day since the weeklong Chuseok havest holiday. [JOONGANG ILBO]

The Kospi broke 3,600 points on Friday, setting a new all-time high in just a week, driven largely by chipmakers riding the momentum of a U.S. semiconductor rally.

The benchmark index closed up 1.73 percent to 3,610.6 points on the first trading day following the weeklong Chuseok harvest holiday, mainly due to mass purchases by foreign investors. It marked the second straight record-high close following the previous session on Oct. 2.

Foreigners net purchased 1.06 trillion won ($745 million) worth of shares, while retail and institutional investors sold 502 billion won and 594.5 billion won worth of shares respectively.

The market bellwether Samsung Electronics soared 6.07 percent to 94,400 won — as did SK hynix, which rose 8.22 percent to 428,000 won. Hanmi Semiconductor, a chipmaking equipment supplier, surged 18.39 percent to 119,100 won.

“Semiconductor gains in the U.S. during Korea’s market holiday were priced in all at once today, driving strong inflows into chip stocks and pushing the index to a new all-time high,” said Lee Jae-won, an analyst at Shinhan Securities, in a Friday report.

A woman walks past a logo of Samsung Electronics displayed on a glass door at the company's Seocho building in southern Seoul on July 8, 2025. [AFP/YONHAP]

Samsung Electronics’ supply of next-generation application processor samples to Qualcomm using its 2nm process and its reported provision of fifth-generation high-bandwidth HBM3E chips to Nvidia contributed to Friday's market surge, Lee added.

Samsung Electronics and SK hynix's partnerships with OpenAI, along with the U.S. government's recent approval of Nvidia's chip sales — with SK hynix being Nvidia's supplier — for U.S. projects in the United Arab Emirates, have also contributed to the Kospi’s postholiday rally.

Stock for tech firm Naver jumped 5.73 percent, while that of Kakao climbed 4.19 percent. But automaker Hyundai Motor fell 1.36 percent, and its affiliated Kia lost 3.45 percent.

Defense stocks also decelerated as Israel and Hamas reached an agreement on the first phase of the Gaza peace deal. Hanwha Aerospace fell 5.01 percent, and LIG Nex1 sank 4.95 percent.

Tech-heavy Kosdaq closed up 0.61 percent.

Won weakened to be quoted at 1,421 against the dollar at 3:30 p.m., up 21 won from the previous session. It was the weakest won-dollar rate since April amid the U.S. government shutdown, which is expected to last until at least next week.

The release of key economic indicators, including the September jobs report, has been delayed due to the government shutdown, introducing new variables into the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decisions and raising uncertainty in assessing the economic outlook.

Delays in the Federal Reserve’s rate cut could keep the dollar strong, which in turn would keep won weak.

The unresolved issue of how Korea will finance its pledged $350 billion investment in the United States has also kept won weak against the greenback. Seoul and Washington have discussed a possible won-dollar currency swap, as Korea is concerned about a potential surge in dollar outflows triggered by the investment.

However, no such agreement was included in the latest deal between the two countries announced earlier this month, except that Korea would provide the United States with detailed monthly data on its foreign exchange transactions and restrict market intervention to periods of excessive volatility.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]