Kospi blasts past 7,000 as Samsung tops $1 trillion, trump signals Iran deal progress

The Kospi surged past the 7,000 milestone on Wednesday, roughly two months after first breaching 6,000, as investors piled into semiconductor stocks after the United States signaled that a potential deal to end the conflict with Iran could be within reach.

The milestone came after Korea overtook Britain to become the world’s eighth-largest stock market last week, following Taiwan’s rise to seventh place amid the chip boom, according to Bloomberg.

The benchmark index closed up 6.45 percent to 7,384.56, marking its second-largest daily gain on record, after the surge seen on March 5, and jumping more than 75 percent from the end of last year, according to the Korea Exchange. A buy-side sidecar was triggered shortly after the trading began for the seventh time this year, as the Kospi 200 futures index spiked 5 percent or more for at least one minute.

Foreign investors were major buyers, net purchasing a record 3.1 trillion won ($2.15 billion) worth of shares, while institutions and individuals dumped a net 2.3 trillion won and 571.2 billion won, respectively.

The rally was led by market bellwether Samsung Electronics that soared 14.41 percent to 266,000 won to become the second Asian company after TSMC to top a $1 trillion market capitalization. The gain lifted it to the world’s 12th-largest company, surpassing Berkshire Hathaway and closing in on Walmart. SK hynix, rival chipmaker, jumped 10.64 percent to 1.6 million won in the first trading session after its market capitalization set a fresh record to surpass one quadrillion won on Monday.  

Other gainers included Hanmi Semiconductor, which rose 4.37 percent to 394,500 won and LG Electronics that advanced 8.17 percent to 154,900 won. Automaker Hyundai Motor increased 2.04 percent to 550,000 won while Kia inched up 0.39 percent to 154,600 won.  

But shipbuilding and defense shares fell. Major shipyard HD Hyundai Heavy Industries dropped 4.71 percent to 648,000 won, and defense giant Hanwha Aerospace lost 2.18 percent to 1.4 million won. Samsung Biologics backtracked 0.34 percent to 1.48 million won.

The Kospi acceleration followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that the U.S. would pause an operation to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, citing progress in diplomatic talks. Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, fell to around $108 a barrel on signs of easing tensions in the Middle East.  

“A critical factor in AI investment is liquidity,” said Hwang San-hae, an analyst at LS Securities. “While oil prices remain elevated, what matters more for the Federal Reserve is how developments with Iran unfold. The conflict isn’t escalating, and the emphasis on negotiations supports optimism about an improvement in the liquidity environment — a tailwind for foreign investors, particularly as Korea is seen as a key beneficiary of the AI investment cycle.”

He added that the market is still in the early stages of a bubble, noting that past bursts have typically been triggered by policy tightening to curb overheating or by investments failing to generate expected returns, leading to bankruptcies among companies and startups.

Others say the surge in Korean equities is largely driven by supply-and-demand factors.  

“Whenever the market capitalization of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix increases, fund-buying flows tend to concentrate at the beginning of the month, creating a virtuous cycle in which index and ETF funds that replicate benchmarks are forced to increase exposure as intraday market-cap weightings rise,” said Lee Kyung-min, a strategist at Daishin Securities about the reasons behind the surge in Korea’s chipmakers at the beginning of a month. On the first trading session of May on Monday, the index jumped 5.12 percent while on April 1, it advanced 8.44 percent.  

Analysts in and outside Korea expect the index to extend further gains, with some projecting it could more than triple from a year earlier, when the index traded at the 2,500 point range. Last week, Shinhan Securities raised the Kospi target to 8,600 points under the bull-case scenario, if earnings expand beyond the chip sector. In April, JPMorgan raised its 12-month Kospi target to as high as 8,500 under the bull-case scenario from 7,500 in February, while Goldman Sachs lifted its forecast to 8,000 from 7,000, citing valuation discounts relative to peers alongside strong AI-driven semiconductor demand.

The 7,000 milestone was reached after Kospi broke the 6,000 threshold on Feb. 25. The pace of each successive breakout has shortened markedly: It took 18 years and four months for the index to rise from 1,000 to 2,000 in July 2007, and 13 years and five months to reach 3,000. It then climbed to 4,000 in October 2025, about four years and nine months after crossing 3,000, before advancing to 5,000 just three months later in January.

The tech-heavy Kosdaq closed down 0.29 percent to 1,210.17. Won traded at 1,455.1 won against the U.S. dollar at 3:30 p.m., rising 7.7 won from the previous session. It was the highest since February 27, when the currency closed at 1,439.7 per dollar. 

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