The KOSPI surged 7.4 percent to climb back above 8,000. while smaller KOSDAQ also jumped 7 percent to 977.57 as of 2:00 p.m.
SK hynix led the charge, rising to 2,175,000 won and again outrunning Samsung Electronics, which climbed to 320,0000 won, the same split that has defined the two through the week's turmoil. The KOSDAQ kept pace at 976.4, up more than 7 percent, leaving Seoul's main board on course to recover almost everything it had lost.
SK hynix clawed back most of its Monday fall while Samsung, which had been hit harder in the crash, recovered far less, a sign investors were sorting between the names rather than buying the sector wholesale.
SK hynix carries a tailwind Samsung lacks, the expectation that its memory partnerships could widen beyond high-bandwidth memory, the stacked chips that feed AI servers, into next-generation products and the data centers being built to house them. Samsung's case rests on the broader memory market, an argument for stronger earnings but without the company-specific catalyst driving its rival.
Yet the rally carried a warning beneath it. Foreign investors were heavy net sellers even as the index surged, while domestic institutions did the buying. For SK hynix, the selling marked a 21st straight session of foreign outflows, a streak running alongside growing concern that the memory cycle behind the chipmakers may be near its peak. A recovery this steep, built on domestic money while overseas funds head the other way, rests on a narrower base than the headline number suggests.
The bounce reached across the region. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose 2.1 percent to 65,396.0, while in China the Shanghai Composite managed a more muted 0.5 percent to 3,979.7. The split tracked exposure to the global chip trade: Korea and Japan, home to the region's largest semiconductor names, rebounded hardest, while China, less tied to the AI memory cycle, moved least.
The rebound followed an overnight steadying in global chip shares after the previous week's collapse, which lifted the memory names that anchor both the Korean and Japanese markets. A broader easing in risk sentiment added to the steadier mood, helping the regional indices claw back ground lost in Monday's rout.
The won strengthened, slipping toward 1,517 against the U.S. dollar by early afternoon, extending a move that has run counter to the equity panic all week. A firming won would normally signal returning foreign confidence, which makes its divergence from the foreign selling in equities one of the day's harder puzzles.
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