Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. Yonhap News
Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) was up nearly 4% on the 29th.
According to the Korea Exchange, as of 9:26 a.m., Samsung Electronics was trading at 228,500 won, up 3.86% from the previous session. While major semiconductor stocks fell in the U.S. market overnight, the rebound is attributed to bargain hunting following the previous day’s decline.
In the U.S. market on the 28th, Micron and SanDisk plunged 8.9% and 14.3%, respectively. Intel also fell 5.9%, and SK hynix’s American depositary receipts (ADRs) dropped 9%, reflecting a sell-off in semiconductor stocks. However, as investor sentiment recovered on falling international oil prices, stocks other than semiconductors posted gains.
“Semiconductor stocks in the U.S. market fell together due to negative news from China and concerns over artificial intelligence (AI) profitability, but this was already priced in during the previous day’s domestic market, so the impact of the previous day’s weakness in U.S. semiconductor stocks will be limited,” said Han Ji-young, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities.
SK hynix (000660.KS), which announced its preliminary second-quarter earnings on the 29th, plunged in the pre-market but soon recovered its losses, showing mixed trading with repeated rebounds and pullbacks in the regular session. SK hynix’s second-quarter revenue was 79.3187 trillion won and operating profit was 60.5426 trillion won, up 256.8% and 557.2% respectively from a year earlier. These figures slightly missed the market forecast of 64 trillion won.
As Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have recently undergone sharp corrections, brokerages have also been cutting their target prices. On the 29th, Mirae Asset Securities lowered its target price for Samsung Electronics to 370,000 won from 550,000 won, and SK hynix to 2.8 million won from 4.2 million won.
“In the case of Samsung Electronics, the sharp drop in its share price has greatly highlighted its dividend appeal, making a strategy of increasing exposure at current price levels valid,” said Kim Young-gun, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities. “For SK hynix, we lowered the target multiple to reflect the industry-wide share price decline, including the possibility of falling NAND prices and issues around China’s localization of lithography equipment.”
