SEOUL, July 22 (AJP) - Korean stocks led Asian markets by a wide margin Wednesday morning, driven by heavy foreign buying in semiconductor shares after a sharp overnight rally in U.S. chipmakers revived expectations for continued artificial intelligence infrastructure investment.
The benchmark KOSPI was trading 5.6 percent higher at 7,125.8 as of 10:30 a.m., outperforming Japan's Nikkei 225, which gained 1.9 percent to 67,512.1. China's Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index each fell 0.6 percent to 3,839.7 and 24,978.9, respectively.
The KOSPI opened at 7,052.09, up 4.51 percent from the previous session, and climbed as high as 7,166.00 before trimming part of its gains. Its intraday low stood at 7,052.09.
A buy-side sidecar was triggered at 9:06 a.m. after KOSPI 200 futures surged more than 5 percent, temporarily suspending program buy orders. The benchmark reclaimed the 7,000 level as soon as trading began.
Foreign investors led the advance, purchasing 1.78 trillion won ($1.2 billion) worth of KOSPI-listed shares. Retail investors sold 1.37 trillion won, while institutions were also the biggest sellers, offloading 430.7 billion won in the latest disclosed tally.
Semiconductor heavyweights accounted for much of the index's gain. SK hynix jumped 8.5 percent to 1,992,000 won, while Samsung Electronics rose 5.8 percent to 274,000 won. The two companies together account for more than half of the KOSPI's total market capitalization.
Their gains followed a semiconductor-led rebound on Wall Street. Micron Technology surged 12.2 percent, Intel gained about 8 percent and Nvidia advanced 2 percent. SK hynix's U.S. depositary receipts soared 13.74 percent to $171.93, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index climbed 5.21 percent.
Buying returned to chipmakers as investors reassessed concerns over slowing AI infrastructure investment and focused instead on continued growth in demand for AI servers, memory chips and data centers.
SK hynix received an additional boost amid separate reports that SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Naver founder Lee Hae-jin were arranging a private meeting with Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang near Silicon Valley this week, with OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei also reportedly possible attendees.
The proposed talks are expected to cover high-bandwidth memory, graphics processing units, AI data centers and generative AI services, although the participants and schedule have not been finalized.
Samsung Electronics also benefited after S&P Global Ratings raised its outlook on the company to positive from stable, citing stronger memory-chip earnings and expectations that Samsung will be a major beneficiary of an extended memory supercycle.
The credit rating agency projected that shortages in memory supply could persist for at least two years as capital expenditure by the world's four largest hyperscalers increasingly shifts toward AI data-center construction.
Other KOSPI heavyweights advanced alongside the semiconductor rally. Samsung Electro-Mechanics gained 9.5 percent to 1,435,000 won, Hyundai Motor rose 6.8 percent to 426,000 won and LG Electronics climbed 10.1 percent to 190,700 won.
Doosan Enerbility added 6.3 percent to 71,000 won, while SK Eternix surged 19.3 percent to 66,700 won.
Electronic products and wireless communications services were the strongest sectors, each rising about 9 percent, followed by machinery stocks with an 8.4 percent gain. SK Telecom climbed 11.3 percent, while LG Uplus advanced 1.7 percent.
The tech-heavy KOSDAQ was trading 2.9 percent higher at 774.8. The index moved between an intraday low of 767.77 and a high of 789.23, giving up part of an earlier gain of more than 4 percent.
Retail investors bought 176.3 billion won worth of KOSDAQ shares, while foreign and institutional investors sold 95 billion won and 80.2 billion won, respectively.
Robot and physical AI stocks led the secondary market after Samsung Electronics announced the establishment of its Robotics eXperience, or RX, business office directly under its chief executive.
The unit will oversee the company's medium- and long-term robotics strategy, core technology development and commercialization as Samsung seeks to expand robotics into a major growth business.
Rainbow Robotics, which Samsung Electronics incorporated as a subsidiary in late 2024, surged 23.5 percent to 508,000 won. The stock climbed as high as 529,000 won earlier in the session.
Buying spread across the robotics sector, which gained 9.8 percent as a group. TXR Robotics and Cosmo Robotics both hit their daily limit with 30 percent gains, while robotics-related shares including Doosan Robotics, Robotis, Robostar and Neuromeka also posted double-digit advances.
Physical AI stocks rose 9.5 percent, led by KNS, which surged 29.9 percent.
Among heavily traded KOSDAQ shares, Lightron gained 15.4 percent to 2,770 won and NRobotics rose 28.6 percent to 2,367 won.
On the downside, HLB fell 7.7 percent to 28,050 won. Pintel dropped 28.2 percent, while Zinitix, Nano, Plasmapp and Sonokong declined between 11.9 percent and 17.9 percent.
The Korean won strengthened 0.2 percent to trade at around 1,480 won against the U.S. dollar.
Oil prices continued to rise as geopolitical tensions threatened supply routes in the Middle East and other major exporting regions.
West Texas Intermediate crude gained 1.5 percent to $85.60 per barrel, while Brent crude rose 1.6 percent to $92.50, remaining near a six-week high.
Concerns intensified over potential disruptions in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, as well as attacks targeting the Caspian Pipeline Consortium's Black Sea terminal, a key export route for crude oil from Kazakhstan.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.